Matchmaker
by BookWorm37
Summary: Bobby needs some help decoding a note left by a kidnapper and calls one of his old buddies to help him out. What happens when Bobby and Alex stumble into a world where Nicole Wallace bad guys are delt with on a regular basis? BA SJ
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Okay, this is my first CI fanfic, so I went for an easier one than doing a fullblown Law & Order CI story: I did a C/O with my usual fandom: SG1. I wouldn't read this if you're unfamiliar with SG1 and CI. It takes place during Season 5 of CI, and at the begining of Season Nine of SG1._

CICICI

Detective Robert Goren looked at the ream of papers in his hands with a sigh – he couldn't crack this code. As far as he knew there was really only one person who could help him with it, but that person had dropped off the face of the Earth a few years before, and he had no way to track him down.

Unless… Goren picked up his phone and dialed the number for one of his friends from his days in the Army. It rang only once before his old friend answered; "O'Neill."

"Jack O'Neill? It's Robert Goren," Bobby said, hoping the other man would remember him from his days overseas in the Army.

"Bobby?" the man on the other end asked curiously.

"Yeah."

"Hey, man! What's up?"

Bobby looked up as his partner, Alex Eames, walked in. He took in her tailored, gray pant suit and red shirt that hugged her body very seductively, in a glance. "Umm … I need you to find someone for me."

"What? No: hello, Jack, how are you doing?" came an annoyed voice on the other end.

Bobby sighed as he began to remember the peculiar nature of his old friend. "Hello, Jack. Sorry I forgot to keep in touch. How have you been lately?"

"Good, good. Well, the knees are bothering me again, and the back is giving me grief but that's not new. How's things there?"

"Oh, not too bad." Bobby shrugged at Eames gave him a questioning look, "Hey, I finally found a long term partner at the MCS."

"Really? That's great, Bobby. How long have you two been working together?"

"Four years, give or take." Alex's look turned to a scowl as she started to complete some forms she'd left undone the night before. "So, the reason for my call is that I need you to find someone for me." At that she looked up: Wasn't finding people _their_ job? "His name is Dr. Daniel Jackson. He has a Ph.D. in Egyptology."

Jack had gone suspiciously silent on the other end. After a few uncomfortable moments of that he said, "What do you need Jackson for, Bobby?"

"I … uh … have something here that needs decoded. It's written in some language that I can't identify and I remember him being a genius when it comes to languages."

There was only a short pause before Jack responded, "I'll have him there tomorrow morning, Bobby," and hung up the phone.

Goren hung up the phone and found the amused face of his partner watching him. "What?" he asked curiously.

Alex smirked at Bobby, "You just called someone else a genius. You mean you're not the only one?"

"Funny, Eames, funny. As it happens, Daniel Jackson is one of the top minds on languages in the world."

Alex raised her eyebrows, "And how exactly are we getting _him_ to decode this damn code for us?"

Bobby shrugged, "I know someone."

"Right…"

SG1SG1

Jack looked down at his phone, the shit-eating grin on his face the only evidence of his good, smug mood. He'd met Robert Goren while he'd been on a stint in Germany after getting out of Iraq. Bobby was a good guy – strange, but good.

There was a knock on his door, "Come."

The familiar head of his secretary, Gertrude Crow, popped in, "General O'Neill? There's a Dr. Jackson, a Mr. Murray and a Ms. Mal Doran here to see you, sir."

"Send them in, Trudy," Jack said with a smile to his fifty year old and perfect secretary, "And thanks for the cake yesterday – it was really good."

Trudy smiled warmly, "Only the best for you, sir," she said before popping back out of his office and sending in his three guests.

Jack grinned as Daniel, Teal'c and Vala entered his office. Standing he said, "T! Buddy, I like what you did with your hair. Danny boy! Long time no see. And you must be Vala. I've heard rather a lot about you."

Vala smiled seductively, rather pleased with herself for being known by this man, "I'm pleased to meet you, General. Daniel has told me only to expect a level of 'sarcasm to rival my own'."

Jack raised an eyebrow as he shook Vala's outstretched hand, "Well, I'll keep that in mind. Now, have you guys finished your meetings with the Joint Chiefs about the budget for the SGC?"

"Yeah, we just got done with the last one. We wanted to see you before we left for Colorado," Daniel said.

Jack nodded, "Glad to see I merit some consideration, Daniel. Now, I have some news for you. You're not going back to Colorado just yet."

"Why?" Daniel asked warily, wondering what had happened.

"Do you know someone named Robert Goren?" Jack asked, sitting down in his chair and leaning back.

Daniel's eyes lit up with recognition and … was that excitement? "Yeah, he came to a few of my lectures after college. One of the few people to actually stay until the end. Not to mention that he would debate with me about them afterward. Why? What's wrong with Bobby?"

Jack shrugged, "Nothing's wrong with Bobby. He just called me asking to get you to New York City to decode something for him. I was just wondering how you knew him, that's all."

"When do we leave?"

_A/N: So? What do you guys think of my first attempt? I promise there will be lots of detective action, as well as SG1 bad guys. Please review._


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Sorry it took me a while to update. I tried earlier, but it wouldn't let me upload my document. On the upside, though, I've gotten quite a few chapters written._

Bobby checked his watch again, it was 06:30, the exact time that Jack had said he, Daniel and two others would be arriving. He looked around the terminal and spotted no one who looked like he remember Jack or Daniel.

A group of three men and a woman walked over to where Bobby stood, a head taller than most of the crowd. The youngest man in the group had glasses and squinted at Bobby, as if trying to decided if he was the person they were looking for. The older man with silver hair had no such problems.

"Bobby Goren?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

Bobby looked at the man, trying to place him in his memory. Finally, when the older man smirked, it all clicked for the detective, "Jack? Buddy, you look different with gray hair! I almost didn't recognize you."

The two men embraced and Jack said, "What are you talking about, Goren? You _didn't_ recognize me! Or poor Daniel, here, either!"

Bobby turned to Daniel, "You look different with short hair, Danny."

Daniel shrugged, sending a glare to Jack, who was looking back innocently, "Yeah, that happens to be Jack's fault, actually."

"HEY! I was _not_ the one who got that damn gift certificate, Daniel. That was Fraiser."

"But you told her it would be a good idea! Janet wouldn't have even _considered_ getting me a gift certificate to a barber shop until you told her that I was having trouble seeing while on missions!" Daniel shot back.

"Daniel Jackson, it was, in fact, myself who mentioned the … benefit of shorter hair to Doctor Fraiser," the big black man who made up part of their group said with a nod and a slight smirk.

Bobby watched the banter like it was a tennis match. It was rather intriguing for him to watch the two men talk. They were obviously very familiar with one another. He was so entranced with watching the three men that he almost missed the woman sidling up along side him.

"Fun, isn't it?" she asked, her accent light and mysterious. Goren wondered where she was from.

"What is?" Bobby asked, his eyes flickering to the black haired beauty.

She grinned, "Watching the Jack and Daniel show, of course. I don't believe we've met, I'm Vala, Vala Mal Doran."

Bobby shook her hand politely, "Detective Robert Goren."

"Bobby for short, I take it?" Vala said, her lips curved upward in a smile that sent chills through Bobby's spine.

"Vala, stop it," Daniel said, irritated at her nature of flirtation.

"Daniel, I didn't know you cared," Vala purred with a smirk.

Daniel rolled his eyes, "No, I just don't like thrusting you on unsuspecting men. Now come on, I'm tired."

Vala grinned at Daniel as Bobby led them out to his car, "What was that, Daniel? Can't sleep with out me, now?"

Daniel groaned, "Vala, you _know_ why I can't leave you here – why must you irritate me so much that I'm willing to just _try_?"

Her grin remained in place as she skipped toward Bobby's car, "Because you let me. And Jack wouldn't let you leave me here – he likes me too much."

Jack snorted, "Sorry, Vala, I'm a married man."

The five of them stopped walking: Jack's eyes were wide, just then realizing what he'd said; Daniel was impersonating a gold fish; Vala was grinning widely, knowing that she'd just gotten Jack to admit to something no one else would have; Bobby … was rather confused, last he had heard from Jack was that he'd gotten divorced, his son was dead and he'd sworn off having another serious relationship; the unnamed black man, of course, took all this information in stride and let none of it show on his face. Jack sighed and looked down, "Sam's _so_ gonna kill me."

Daniel got over his confusion first. He rounded on Jack with a glare Bobby though the other man not capable of producing, "When the hell did you and Sam get married? And why the hell wasn't _I_ invited!"

Jack mumbled something Daniel couldn't quite make out, so the younger man persisted, "Excuse me? Do I need to call Sam and tell her that you blew your _whole_ cover?"

"Five months, Daniel," Jack mumbled moodily. He looked at the black man, "Is that right, T?"

The black man, now identified as 'T' cocked his head slightly, "It has, in fact, been six months since Colonel Carter's transfer to Nevada, O'Neill."

Jack sighed, shaking his head, "Now _that's_ sad. I can't even remember my own anniversary!"

"Which anniversary, O'Neill? I am most assured that Colonel Carter would enjoy celebrating the anniversary of your first encounter, as well as your wedding ceremony."

"Gee, thanks, T. Next thing I know, you'll be telling _her_ this and she'll want to arm wrestle every single year – just to prove she _can beat me_! And we didn't invite you, Daniel, because it was a spur of the moment thing while you were packing up for your _trip_ and T and I were helping Sam get settled in Nevada."

Bobby grinned at his old friend's antics. He was a little surprised to note how at ease Jack seemed around the other two men, and the woman. The Jack O'Neill he remembered was a good man – with a hell of a _lot_ of misconceptions. The Jack O'Neill standing and bantering before him was at least comfortable with where he was in life for the moment. It seemed someone had helped Jack put to rest a good deal of his demons. Bobby's mind quickly went to focus on his own demons and the only person he knew who could help him get past them.

They were halfway to Bobby's house (he had an extra bedroom and a foldout sofa) where they would all be staying, when his cell phone rang. Jack was sitting passenger and took the phone from Bobby, "Goren's phone."

"Umm, hi. This is Alex Eames, his partner. Who am I talking to?" she asked, confusion evident in her voice when a man other than Bobby answered the phone.

"This is Jack O'Neill, an friend of Bobby's from way back. It's nice to finally put a voice to the woman who's stuck with Bob for so long," Jack said with a playful smirk at his friend.

"Yeah. Can I talk to him?"

"Sure, just a second." Jack handed the phone to Bobby, "It's Alex."

"Eames," Bobby spoke into the phone, shooting a glare at Jack before pulling to a stop at a red light. "What is it?"

"We have another missing student from NYU."

"What? Who is it?"

"Her name is Cassandra Fraiser, she's a freshman at NYU. We've got another note found by the roommate in a different code, but it's the same MO: roommate was out, came home, noticed the place was ransacked and there was a note on the table with a lock of the victim's hair beside it."

_A/N: Well? What do you guys think so far? Believe me, it's only going to get even more interesting as it goes on. Please review._


	3. Chapter 3

_A__/N: Sorry this chapter is so short, I couldn't find any other way to cut it. _

Bobby swore, causing everyone else in the car to look at him in concern. He frowned, "Wait, Cassandra Fraiser … didn't we interview her in the first kidnapping?"

"Yeah, she's a friend of the vic. Some of their friends thought they were dating," Alex replied, reminding him of the circumstances.

Jack looked back at Daniel and Teal'c, horror written on the faces of all three men. Jack turned back to the front of the car as Bobby said, "We're on our way. I just picked up Dr. Jackson and Jack O'Neill from the airport. Are you at the plaza or her apartment?"

"Her apartment," as Eames rattled off directions to Cassandra Fraiser's residence, the car passengers only grew more and more tense. Alex was unaware of the situation in the car and just ended the conversation by saying, "See you in ten."

"Bye." Bobby hung up the phone and found three very anxious men watching him closely, "What?"

"What was the name of the first victim?" Jack asked, his voice having no traces of anxiety or fear that his eyes relayed.

"Scott Douglas, why?"

"Damn it!" Daniel swore at the same time the hat of Jack's dress blues suffered irreparable damage.

Vala looked at the archeologist in concern, "What is it, Daniel?"

"Scott Douglas is the alias of MJ," Jack explained to the woman, choosing his words very carefully. "I'm wondering why the hell the NID hasn't told us about this yet."

"Perhaps they are participating in the kidnappings, O'Neill?" Teal'c suggested. Bobby began filing away this new information in his mind, unsure what to make of the acronyms they were using, but he knew that they would be important later. For now all he could do was watch, try to do his job, and pay attention.

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of," Jack muttered under his breath as he got out his cell and dialed the number for the CO of the SGC. "Hank, it's Jack. … Yeah, I need SG-2 and Colonel Mitchell on a plane to Manhattan ASAP – oh, and call Nevada, we'll need Carter on this, too. … What's wrong? I'll tell you what's _wrong_, Hank: remember Scott Douglas? … Yes, _him_. He was kidnapped," Jack looked at Bobby for a time estimate.

"Two days ago," Goren said, pulling up to the apartment building and coming to a stop by the curb.

"He was kidnapped two days ago, Hank. … Don't ask _me_ why you haven't heard about it! Neither had I – and the damn kid's my responsibility! … Yeah, Daniel thinks so, too. … I need all of them here _soon_, Hank. … It is? Well, then just get Pendergast to give them a ride, Landry. … No, I don't care what the rest of their plans are! … Why? Because Cassie was kidnapped last night. … Now only a few people even know who the hell she is, let alone that she's going to NYU. Can you think of anyone who'd want to kidnap her? … Just get them here, Hank."

The five occupants of the car got out and were soon greeted by a short woman with dark blonde hair. She walked up to Goren and handed him a cup of coffee, "Here, Bobby." She turned to the other men and woman, "Hi, I'm Detective Alex Eames."

"General Jack O'Neill. This is Dr. Daniel Jackson, Vala Mal Doran and T. Murray." His fervent eyes implored Alex in silent turmoil, "Can we see the scene?"

Alex nodded, leading the group into the apartment. It looked like a tornado had swept through the common living areas. There were books and miscellaneous items strewn about, as if someone was looking for something. Surprisingly, it was Vala who noticed the pattern to it all.

"Daniel," she said softly, turning to the archeologist. Bobby watched the pair closely, wondering what insight they would provide. "Have you ever used a hand device?"

Daniel scowled, "No, why?" _We shouldn't even be mentioning hand devices here! There are civilians all around us who don't have the clearance to know!_

"But you've seen them in use, right?" Vala's eyes were wide as she looked at him. He nodded silently, wondering where she was going with it, "If I stand here, and put my arm out like this, look at the destruction patterns on the wall."

It was then that Daniel noticed the slightly burnt paint on the walls where Vala had indicated with her hand. He knew of only one device that could do that to a wall with such precision.

Bobby watched his old friends, wondering what they knew that he needed to know to solve this case. He watched Jack and Daniel interacting with each other and Vala, noting how the big man introduced at T was closely examining the dining room area and kitchen as if the food areas told all the answers.

"O'Neill!" Murray said, his booming voice carrying to where Jack paced the living room, looking for some clue as to who took Cassie. "I believe I found something."

Immediately Jack, Bobby and Alex were by Teal'c's side, looking to the area on the floor he had indicated. Bobby first noticed the cloth that lay underneath the butcher knife. "Get a shot of this," he told one of the CSI operatives. Once the picture was taken, Bobby lifted up the knife: underneath was a piece of a pinstripe suit.

_A/N: I'll give you two guesses as to who the bad guy is in this. Oh, yeah, and MJ is 'Mini-Jack' (Jack's clone from season seven who only aged to fifteen/sixteen years).  
_


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Okay, for all of you CI fans who've only had minimal viewing of SG1, all WILL be explained to Alex and Bobby, so don't worry - it will be explained to you at that time, as well._

_Oh, and any ideas of how to include pie in this story are very welcome. _

Bobby and Alex watched the reactions of the four visitors carefully. Jack and Daniel were both visibly seething with rage; Vala was furrowing her brow, as if she was trying to remember something important; and the big man, Murray, looked impassive. Alex would bet that it would take a lot to get him to break his cool as she noticed the twitching of his jaw muscle at the sight of the cloth. Bobby noticed it, as well, and was determined to find out all these four knew about his case before the week was out.

"Ding dong, the Wicked Witch is back to play," Jack said in a cynically sarcastic tone that sent a chill down Alex's spine.

"I was under the impression that we had decided on the fictional character of Darth Vader to represent him, O'Neill," Murray said, his voice, as always, monotone and his face a blank slate.

Jack cocked his head, not really sure how to respond to that until Daniel took it out of his hands by saying, "But that only after watching all six movies in a row and finally letting Jack have the satisfaction of knowing that we get the connection between Burns and the … bad guys."

Jack winced at Daniel's nick name for the Goa'uld, not bothering to respond any more than to give Daniel a dirty glare he knew the younger man could interpret well.

Alex shared a brief look with Bobby before saying, "I take it you know who kidnapped Ms. Fraiser, then?"

Daniel glanced at Jack, and saw the look on his face that told him to tell only what needed to be told, "You could say that we have a good idea."

Jack snorted in disgust, "Daniel, we have more than a 'good idea'. How many people do you know that go around kidnapping … NYU students while wearing designer suits?" He glanced at Bobby, noting the Armani, "No offence toward designer suits."

Bobby smiled slightly, "I'm sure my Armani takes none, Jack. Now, who's your guy?"

Daniel cut in before Jack could answer, "Actually, I'd like to see the notes he left at the crime scenes before we talk about that."

"Sure," Alex said, handing him a copy of the first note, and the second in a plastic bag. Both detectives watched in curiosity as Daniel read the notes. It seemed he already knew both codes very well.

"Tea - Murray, I can't read this word, what is it?" Daniel asked, his slip of the tongue noticed by Bobby and Alex, as was Jack's wince in reaction.

Murray took the paper from Daniel's hand and looked at the symbols he pointed to closely before handing it back and saying, "Revenge."

Daniel's face grew taught as he digested that information, "Yeah, I was afraid of that."

"Are you guys going to tell us what's going on or do we have figure it out for ourselves?" Bobby asked, his eyes darting in an attempt to watch everyone at the same time.

Jack shook his head slightly, "Always to the point, Bobby. Sorry, I can't say anything until I have a little chat with Henry and Hank." He turned to Murray and waited expectantly while the big man pulled a cell phone from the inside pocket of his jacket and handed it to Jack.

"Thanks, buddy." Jack opened the phone and pressed the speed dial, pressing the phone to his ear. "Hank? I need you to call Henry – get a couple non-disclosure agreements down here when you send SG-2. … Umm, better make that three, oh, and get Henry to call the Chief of Detectives and have a chat with him. … Apparently we have a Bocce Ball situation that needs dealt with. … What? No good? … We think he has Cassie and MJ and is planning something big. … Soon, Hank, we don't have a lot of time to deal with niceties."

Jack hung up the phone and looked at Daniel, who was intently studying the first note while Vala was reading the second. "Daniel?"

The archeologist looked up, "What?" Jack motioned toward the papers in his hands and Daniel's mind caught up with Jack's, "Oh. This one's in Ancient, that ones in … Murray's native language. We might want to head over to the police precinct before we talk about this any further." Daniel turned his attention to Bobby and Alex, "Is that okay with you two?"

Alex shrugged, "I'm done."

"Yeah, me, too," Bobby said, with a curious glance at Vala as she read the note.

-----

"So, how do you guys know how to read those things?" Alex asked, gesturing to the notes that Daniel was still studying.

No one answered. Daniel didn't even glance up; Vala was trying to annoy him without speaking; T Murray was just standing next to one of the walls with his hands behind his back like a bouncer in a club; Jack looked at his watch for the tenth time in as many minutes. It seemed as if they were all waiting for something to happen.

After a few more tensed minutes of silence, Daniel answered, "Uh, this language, from the first note, is known as Ancient. I was in a position to learn to speak it three years ago. And this other language is very common where Murray and Vala are from."

Bobby looked up from where he was studying the crime scene photos at the other end of the table with Eames, "And where, exactly, is that?"

Both detectives noticed the way the four of them looked at one another before Murray answered, "Moroco," in his usual monotone voice.

Of course, Bobby didn't believe them in the slightest, "Then why aren't either of you speaking with a French accent?"

_A/N: I remember Bobby saying something about people from Moroco speaking in a French accent in that episode with the suicide bombers. Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter - more will be up soon if you all tell me how much you like this story. _

_I just got through a thirteen hour day at school (my first day of college) and when I was at the store, I was getting money back and instead of pressing $15.00, I asked for $00.45! It was crazy, and I'm really tired, but I was nice enough to post this first. I like compliments.  
_


	5. Chapter 5

Before an appropriate cover story could be told, Jack's cell went off again. "O'Neill. … Really? … Where? … _What_? … Thanks, Hank. … Yeah, I know. Tell Pendergast the next time he sees my wife he might want to run. … He did? I'll call Sam and let her know where to go. Bye, Hank."

"What was that about?" Daniel asked, his eyes curious as he looked up from the note.

Jack smirked despite the anxiety of the situation, "Pendergast apparently has just as bad timing as you do, Daniel. He caught Sam right after she got out of the shower."

Daniel's eyebrows rose in shock, "Is he okay?"

The older man shrugged, "Sam had her clothes in her arms and a towel on, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Ferretti and Mitchell put a stop to the smirks and looks the rest of SG-2 was giving her quickly, so I don't _think_ Pendergast is in danger of castration."

"Did the president sign off on the non-disclosure agreements?" was Daniel's next question to Jack.

"Yep, Hank said he sent five with them, just in case. Now, I've gotta call my wife and tell her where to go."

"Are you sure she'll be able to find the place?" Daniel asked, concern now evident in his voice and face.

"Apparently when she was kid Jacob was stationed primarily at McGuire in New Jersey. Her mom didn't like living there that much so she set up shop in New York as a tour guide at the Met."

Daniel's mouth formed a silent 'Oh' and he went back to studying the note. Jack opened his phone again and called his wife.

His conversation with Sam was quiet and not unusual until she asked him a question he apparently didn't want to answer. "It'll just make you angry, Sam. … You have a point, but I don't want you to drive while you're angry. … Ferretti's driving? Why the hell is Ferretti driving? … Ah. … No, I still don't want to tell you. … Because this _isn't_ news that you should be told _over the phone_! …" Jack closed his eyes as he listened to his wife's argument on the other end. "Fine. Scott and Cassie are missing. … No, we think ol' Bocce is responsible. … Yes, I know what that means, Sam. … Just get here as soon as you can, okay? We can explain more when you're here." He hung up the phone and found everyone watching him intently. "What?"

It was Alex who asked the question everyone was wondering, "Bocce?"

Jack sighed, "His name's Ba'al. I just call him Bocce to make him angry."

"Jack?" Daniel asked, looking at the older man with an irritated air about him.

"Daniel?" Jack asked, pretending to be oblivious to the obvious question behind the way the archeologist said his name.

"When's Sam gonna get here?"

Jack looked down at his watch, "Ten minutes, give or take. For some reason they thought it would be a good idea to let _Ferretti_ drive."

"I do not believe that was a wise decision," T said, his eyes showing a glint of humor in them that belittled the situation slightly.

"I know! He drives worse than Daniel!"

"Hey! I resent that, Jack," Daniel said, now indignant. "I don't drive _that_ bad."

Vala looked at him pityingly, "Daniel, I've been in the car with you behind the wheel – I'm sorry, dear, but your driving _is_ rather sporadic."

Daniel glared at her, "Then why don't you drive?"

The seductress grinned, "Ah, my darling Daniel, have you forgotten already that I don't drive? … At least, not _cars_, away."

Jack and Alex snorted at the two, while Bobby and Daniel proceeded to blush at the innuendo Vala just said so calmly. Someone cleared their throat from the doorway, causing everyone to look up to find Captain Jimmy Deakins standing there with a group of six behind him.

"Is this a private party, or can anyone join?" he asked his two best detectives with a smirk. "I found these six at reception downstairs," his eyes caught Jack's, "As soon as I saw the Air Force uniforms I was pretty sure they belonged to you, General."

Jack's face lost all the humor in it, "Thank you, Captain. Will you please come in? Ferretti, shut the door behind you."

Soon the conference room was crowded with the military personnel, two NYPD detectives and their captain. Sam sent a small smile to Daniel, Jack and Teal'c, knowing that now was not the time to properly say hello to any of the three men. She looked at the other two women in the room, recognizing Vala from her mannerisms. Sam watched the female detective watch her closely, and a flitter of recognition passed through both their eyes as they realized who the other was.

"Thanks, Mitchell," Jack said as he took three folders from him, and passed them to the three civilians without clearance. "These are our standard non-disclosure agreements. Each of you will have to sign them if you want to be kept in the loop on this investigation. The Air Force is officially taking over."

"You can't do that," Deakins said, barely even glancing at the agreement on the table before him. "You're outside your jurisdiction, General."

Jack's eyes met Sam's before his temper could answer the Captain instead of his common sense. She raised an eyebrow at him before she took over, "Actually, Captain Deakins, the kidnappings of Scott Douglass and Cassandra Fraiser are matters of national security." She let her words sink in before she continued, "General O'Neill can have President Hayes on the phone in a matter of minutes if you don't believe us."

Jack looked at his watch, 0745, "Actually, Carter, he's having breakfast with his wife right now. We won't be able to get a hold of him until 0830 at the earliest."

Sam cocked her head to one side, "Well, do you think Vice President Hammond would have a problem if we called _him_?"

Jack scowled, "Probably not, but today's his day to spend the morning with Kayla and Tessa – I don't think he'll want to be disturbed for something like this."

Sam sighed, thinking, "We could always call the Joint Chiefs."

Jack visibly winced at that, "They're mad at me for taking the week off."

---

A/N: Come on, guys! I have my stats and I know how many people have this thing on review - AND how many people are reading this! PLEASE review! If you review, I'll update when I get back from going to see my brother this weekend.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: You're SO lucky that I'm in a good mood right now because one of my classes was canceled for the day (professor was sick) so I only had to go to three ... and I got theUrban Decay stuff I ordered a few weeks ago. They're SO AWESOME!

---

She smirked at him, a smarmy response coming to her throat, but she bit back the words before they could come out. She turned back to the detectives, who were watching the show with interest. "Did you sign them, yet?"

Bobby and Alex handed her their agreements in a heartbeat, having already gone through and signed their souls away if they told anyone what they were about to find out. Jack's eyes fixed on Deakins, "You know, Captain, we don't have to tell you a thing about this case. We're doing you a favor by offering to keep you in the loop."

With a sigh Jimmy Deakins opened the folder and signed his name in all the necessary places before handing it to Carter. "Thank you, Captain," she said before moving to hand the agreements to Mitchell and stand by Teal'c.

Deakins nodded once, knowing that she was right and they didn't have to include him in anything at all. He watched the Air Force Major General rummage through a folder of information, pulling out a set of pictures.

"I'll let Daniel explain the history of what I'm about to tell you later," Jack said, putting the pictures on the table in front of the three civilians. One was a picture of a big round object that had engravings all around it, another was of a snake like thing with gills, and the third was of a man wearing a perfectly tailored suit.

Jack pointed to the first one, "This is the Stargate. It's a device that transports you to other worlds via a wormhole. For more information please see Carter after we finish this thing." Next he pointed to the second one, "When we opened the Stargate ten years ago, we came face to face with pure evil. This is an alien known as a Goa'uld. Pure evil and bent on universal domination. It's a parasitical life form that burrows into the neck of a host – most commonly human. And this, is the man we're looking for. His name is Ba'al and he's the most _ruthless_ Goa'uld out there right now. Any questions?"

Bobby raised his hand, much to the amusement of SG-2. Jack grinned, "Yes, Bobby?"

"Why did he target Fraiser and Douglas?"

The grin left Jack's face and his eyes became hard, "Cassie was the sole survivor when her home planet was destroyed eight years ago. The same metal the Stargate is made out of is in her blood, and she's rather advanced evolution wise. Scott Douglas is … my nephew."

Alex cocked her head, "We _didn't_ just sign a non-disclosure agreement to have you lie to us, General. We need to know who he is to be able to find him."

Jack silently appealed to his wife, who took over by stepping up to stand beside her husband, "Scott Douglas is the name of General O'Neill's clone. While our war with the Goa'uld was going on, we allied ourselves with a very powerful race known as the Asgard. They have the technology to clone people and things. About two years ago, General O'Neill was cloned by a rogue Asgard scientist named Loki. The clone only matured to sixteen years old and when the situation was made clear and Loki captured by Thor, the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, MJ – as we call him, took on the persona of Scott Douglas: child protégé and started school at NYU."

Daniel raised his hand, "Are you sure we're allowed to tell them all this, Sam?"

Sam shrugged, glanced at her husband, then at the three police officers and then back to Daniel, "Why not?"

Daniel's inquiry was then directed at Jack, who shrugged and said, "She has a point. They already signed the forms, and I make the rules. I'm _The Man_."

Bobby and Deakins grinned at that while Alex chuckled quietly. Sam just grinned back at the three of them and said, "He actually has a nameplate that says that. The president and vice president thought it would be fitting."

Jack mock glared at his wife before getting on with the impromptu briefing, "Now, Daniel, would you care to share with the class what those handy notes left by ol' Bocce Ba'al say?"

Daniel looked down at the first note in front of Vala, "Well, when he kidnapped Scott, he left a rather taunting message about how we'll never find him and that Scott gets to relive your experience with him right after Kanan screwed you over, Jack."

The General's hard face hid barely contained rage that all were able to see, however, his response to the news was not what most in the room thought it was going to be. His eyes were hard and determined as they turned to Daniel, "_How the hell_ did he get a sarcophagus onto Earth _without_ us finding out?"

Sam looked down at her shoes (a pair of tennis shoes purchased hurriedly on the way to One Police Plaza after she was beamed to the Prometheus with only a pair of street clothes and a towel) finding the new leather more interesting than the fear and anger she saw on the faces of everyone around her in the room. She put her hand on Jack's arm and softly said, "It's possible the sarcophagus was already _on_ Earth, or that he somehow got the Trust to help."

Jack nodded slightly, letting his wife know that he was now in better control of his emotions. He turned back to Daniel and in a low voice asked, "And the second note?"

"Written in Ancient – one of the old dialects that Anubis was so fond of back in the day. It pretty much says that if we don't find him within twenty-four hours he's going to make Cassie his new queen in front of Scott, and then let her torture Scott the same way Ba'al tortured Jack three years ago."

"Carter?" Jack asked, glancing to his left where his wife stood patiently, "What do you think?"

"It's an overly obvious trap and we have no choice," Sam responded, her face relaying a façade of cool emotions and complete control while inside she raged at how much she wanted to kill Ba'al and find Cassie and Scott before it was too late.

---

A/N: I tried to keep it light while dealing with the whole kidnapping because that's so much of what you see on SG-1: they have the fate of the universe lying in the balance and they're cracking jokes as they (Sam and Daniel with a little help from Teal'c, Jack and the numerous eggheads at the SGC) save the world.


	7. Chapter 7

Jack looked to Teal'c, "T? How much time do you think we got?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow as he thought before saying, "Approximately seven hours, O'Neill, before Ba'al will begin his strike against both Scott Douglas and Cassandra Fraiser. We must move quickly."

To say that this was a difficult situation for Bobby, Alex and Deakins to be in would have been a gross understatement. The truth of the matter was Deakins kept on thinking about how he was going to tell Carver about the case, while Bobby and Alex were both wondering how they were going to catch the damn guy.

Part of Bobby was in awe at how much his two old friends had changed – their personalities seemed to have meshed together to create a more battle hardened and sarcastic Daniel, while creating a softer and more sympathetic Jack. He saw the way both men differed to Sam Carter – the woman who had apparently captured Jack's heart. He didn't really know who she was, but he vaguely remembered reading an article in a science magazine about wormholes by a Dr. Samantha Carter. Perhaps this was her. It didn't really matter right now, though. Right then they had two missing persons to find.

"Did Ba'al give us any clues about where to find them?" Alex asked Daniel as she turned in her seat to see him better.

Daniel shook his head, "Not exactly. He's not a very straightforward person when it comes to things like that. He likes to taunt you and takes pleasure in watching people suffer at his hand."

"Sounds like Nicole," Bobby heard Alex mumble under her breath.

"Nicole Wallace?" Teal'c asked in his curious yet still monotone voice.

Alex and Bobby both looked at the big man in surprise. "Yes," Alex said, confused as to how he would know that.

Sam answered her unspoken question, "Ever since Cassie decided to go to NYU we've all kept a finger on the pulse of crime in the city." Her eyes grew sad as she looked at the pair and their Captain, "If we have to go face to face against Ba'al, or see his _handiwork_ today, Nicole Wallace will look like Santa Claus."

"Now, _that's_ impossible," Bobby said vehemently. Part of him wondered why this girl was so important to these people, while another part told the first that it was a moot point at the moment.

Jack turned his attention away from the conversation to Ferretti and Mitchell, "Did you bring Carter's 'toys' with you?"

Ferretti nodded, "Yep, General. We've got all the toys Area 51 would let us take." Alex raised her eyebrows at that; shocked that Area 51 was real. Ferretti grinned at her as he was lifting the big black case in his hands so it rested on the table before opening it. Inside were a number of devices none of the cops had seen, and most of which those from the SGC wished they had never seen.

Jack picked up the long metal stick thing that lay on one side of the case. He hefted it so the weight was more balanced before showing it to cops. "This is a pain stick. The name is exactly what it does. It's one of Ba'al's favorite things to give his minions." He put it back carefully before pointing to the head, "Whatever happens, do not grab it by _that_. That's the conduit."

He picked up a device that looked like it could fit on a person's hand, "This is a hand device – one of Ba'al's favorite toys to use on prisoners. You have to have the element the Stargate is made up of in your blood to be able to use this, and luckily we have two people with us who are able to use this." He set it back, less gentle than he was with the pain stick since he wasn't able to activate it.

Jack pulled out the last 'toy' from the case. It was a small device that looked like it just slipped onto two fingers. "This is another weapon that can only be used by Sam or Vala. But, unlike the hand device, this can only be used in close proximity to the intended victim. Hurts like hell, I hear," as he said the last part, Jack turned to his wife, who was looking at the device in his hand with hatred.

Bobby noticed the slight smile that appeared on Sam's face for a split second. "Hell had nothing to do with it," she said softly.

"Right," Jack said, putting the weapon back in the case, leaving just one unidentified object inside. "Now," he said, turning his attention back to the three natives of New York City, "If you were a sociopath, psychotic, son of a bitch who liked to flaunt power but was trying not to draw attention to yourself in New York … where would you hide?"

Daniel raised his hand after a few minutes of silence, "I missed something before. Ba'al put a riddle in here. 'At night they come without being fetched, and by day they are lost without being stolen.' Wow, he's really getting desperate."

Bobby thought for a second, his eyes darting between Daniel and Alex. "Stars. They're somewhere where he can see the stars."

Jack thought for a minute before Ferretti said, "Ship?"

Sam went white at that thought, but let her husband take control of the situation, "Alright, people. Mitchell, get in a call to Pendergast and have him do a sweep of the entire planet – I want to know where that damn ship is. Ferretti, get your team ready to do a ship sweep and blow. I don't want anything left after we've got Cassie and Scott back. Daniel, Vala, Teal'c, you're with SG-2. I'll call the president and inform him of the situation. Carter, explain it to them," as he gave the last order, Jack motioned to the three now rather frightened cops before going off to find a quiet place to call his boss.

---

A/N: I'm rather upset right now because of the stats this story has that are rather ... contridictory. The alert stats, hits and reviews just DON'T match up! That makes me sad, and when I'm sad I don't update - I eat pie.

Care to press the button on the bottom left hand corner of your screen and say a few words?


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: I've been debating for the past half an hour to start my math busy work, or update. As you can obviously see I chose the latter. Thank you to my reviewers.

---

As the Air Force officers shuffled out of the conference room to get going on their respective tasks, Sam slid down to sit in the only empty chair in the room, next to Alex, Bobby and Deakins. Daniel, Jack and Teal'c gave her concerned looks as they left the room, but all three men knew enough to say nothing.

Sam let her head drop to her hands as her elbows rested on the metal table, the cold material barely even registering through her Air Force sweat shirt. The other three didn't know exactly when the tears started, but when Samantha Carter started to visibly shake Alex couldn't take it anymore.

The astrophysicist's tear stained face shot up when she felt Alex's hand on her shoulder. Bobby recognized the look of fear and helplessness that lay in Sam's eyes and was unsure about what had brought it on as Alex and Deakins.

Without addressing the issue at hand, Sam turned to Deakins, "Captain Deakins, all of your superiors have been notified by the Vice President or the President himself about the Air Force taking over this case. By the time you arrive at your desk tomorrow, it will be on file that Cassandra Fraiser and Scott Douglas escaped on their own from their captor and he was never found. Is that understood?"

Deakins nodded, not liking the situation one bit, but knowing that there was nothing he could do, "Completely, Colonel."

"Good, I'm sure you have other matters that you need to attend to. Paper work seems to fuel all offices, after all," Sam's eyes had taken on a far off look that was cold and distant – it as look none of the police officers had seen on someone not related to a crime or death. Bobby was determined to find out what it meant.

Deakins wordlessly left, silently praying his best two detectives could right whatever wrongs where going on here … Who was he kidding? They weren't shrinks! No, they weren't, but they _were_ the next best thing: friends.

Sam recognized the look in both Bobby's face and Alex's, but she wasn't about to go crying away all her troubles to a man she'd never even met before and a woman she hadn't seen in twenty-odd years.

"I take it that you both want to know what Ferretti and the General were just talking about," Sam said, her face still clear of all emotion, even though the red stains left by her tears spoke of how unstable her emotions were.

Alex wordlessly nodded as Bobby just sat and studied the Air Force Colonel. She started explaining how the team assembled would take over Ba'al's ship, kill him, try to free any Jaffa he had on board and give them the option to join the newly formed Free Jaffa Nation, all while finding Cassie and Scott and beaming them back to New York so they wouldn't miss classes on Monday.

Bobby leaned forward, his eyes looking at Sam intently as he asked, "And how are ten of you going to do all that in less than seven hours?"

Sam shook her head, "There _aren't_ going to be ten of us on that ship. Jack can't go – the President would be _way_ too pissed if he did that."

"What about you?" Bobby asked; his eyes lowering to look at Sam's stomach before returning to her face to find her shocked eyes locked on his.

Without answering Bobby directly, Sam turned to Alex, "Is he always this observant?"

Alex nodded, "I'm sure he could tell you exactly who's job is what by now, Ferretti's relationship with Jack and your relationship with T and Daniel."

The astrophysicist turned back to Goren, her eyes holding a hint of sadness whose origin he couldn't figure out, "No, I'm not going."

"As much as I love that idea," someone drawled from the doorway, Sam and Alex looked up to find Jack standing there, his arms crossed over his chest, "I'm gonna need to know why the hell not. Carter, you know those ships better than anyone but Teal'c and Vala."

Sam felt tears come to her eyes again as her husband walked closer to her and knelt down beside her chair. "Because I'm two months pregnant, Jack," she whispered, her eyes soulfully gazing into his eyes. "I can't risk it."

The information was just too much for Jack to take in. Before anyone could react, he was on the floor, unconscious. Sam rolled her eyes as Bobby quickly got up to check on his old friend. "For cryin' out loud," she muttered under her breath, "Not again."

"Again?" Bobby asked, reassured that nothing serious was wrong with Jack and he'd wake up in a few moments. "This happened before?"

Sam nodded, "Right after I told him I'd marry him. This is all rather surreal for both of us." Her lips formed a small smile, "Surreal and wonderful."

Someone coughed from the doorway and Sam looked up to find Daniel and Teal'c standing there with SG-2, Mitchell and Vala standing behind them. She took a deep breath, "He'll be fine – just had a systems overload."

"Ack!" Jack cried, shaking Bobby off as he sat up, "Only you would call me hearing that my wife's about to have a baby a systems overload, Carter!"

"Yeah, well I'm sorry about the wording, _sir_, but that's what happened," Sam snarled back to her husband.

Before the conversation could escalate into an argument, Mitchell cleared his throat, "We're ready, General."

Jack scowled as he got to his feet, part of him really wishing he could go with the team, the other part of him knowing that he had to stay Earth-side and talk to his wife. "T, you're in command. Main objective is retrieving Cassie and Scott; secondary objective is blowing that ship to hell. Got that?"

"Indeed."

"Good. Move out."

---

A/N: So? What do you guys think? I thought it only fitting that Bobby noticed before anyone said anything - as it's just such a Bobby thing to realize. Please review and tell me what you think.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Sorry this is short, but this is where the chapter wanted to be cut. OH, and **gothfairy**: I never stop eating pie.

---

They were in one of the interrogation rooms that wasn't in use. It was pretty much the most private place in the building that Bobby could think of for Jack and Sam to have the intimate conversation. Sam and Jack didn't know it, but Bobby had also chosen that room so he could observe their physical interactions without them seeing him.

It was an enlightening experience for Bobby to watch the couple interact. When they were in front of others, in a work environment they were so professional that Bobby wasn't sure he'd have pegged them as a couple if Jack hadn't told him. But here, alone with just the two of them, as they waited for news about Cassie and Scott, here there was no General O'Neill and Colonel Carter Ph.D. – here there was only Jack and Sam.

He didn't know how long he stood there, watching them, but it was a long time, finally interrupted by someone coming up to stand beside him. "Amazing, isn't it?"

"What?" Bobby asked, unsure what the other man was talking about.

Daniel gestured to Sam and Jack, "Them. You know they've been in love with each other for over eight years? I wasn't surprised at all when I found out they were married – to tell the truth I was just a little upset they hadn't invited me. It was a long time coming for them."

"How long?" Bobby asked, wondering if it was anywhere near as long as he'd waited for Alex already.

"Eight years." Daniel smirked, "I remember the first time they kissed. They'd only known each other for a few months and when we came across a disease off world that … brought out the … _ape_ in them."

Bobby smiled slightly, trying to imagine that, "What happened?" he asked Daniel as he continued to study the couple on the other side of the wall.

Daniel shrugged, "Sam jumped him in the locker room."

"And?"

"He … idiot that he was, fought her off and took her to the infirmary." Daniel looked at Bobby with a look that said how stupid he thought Jack had been all those years ago, "Then, about half an hour later, when I was talking to him about it, he attacked me because he thought I was trying to steal Sam away from him."

Bobby whistled, "All this just a few months after they met?"

Daniel nodded, "Yep. There are lots of stories like that about them."

"Daniel, you're not telling him about the Touched thing, are you?" someone asked as they walked up behind the pair of men.

Daniel shrugged, "Scott, what can I say? It was just so obvious!"

Jack's clone glared at Daniel, suppressing the feelings of loneliness that threatened to overwhelm his young body as he looked past the archeologist and saw his 'original' intimately hugging his wife. Finally he turned back to Daniel with sad eyes, "Daniel, you know it's not your place to tell him. No matter _what_ you think."

"Scott?" a young, feminine voice asked from the doorway, "Don't do this to yourself."

Scott turned to look at the redhead standing in the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest, "Do what, Cassie?"

Her eyes flared with anger, "You know _exactly_ what I'm talking about, Scott! Now _stop it_ right now!"

Bobby was a little surprised at the power and command her small form radiated as she glared at the older man/boy/clone. He couldn't quite place what exactly was going on between Scott and Cassie, but he could sense a lot of the emotions boiling under the skins of both college students.

The stand off between the two continued for a few more minutes before Cassie finally whispered, "What would happen to me if you did it?"

His eyes softened slightly, "You have them."

"But I _need_ you," she insisted. "They can support me, but they don't know what it's like. Scott, you're the only one who knows. I need you to help me, and you dwelling on all of this, _isn't_ helping."

Scott shook his head, "I'm not sure I can help you, Cassie."

"_Don't you dare_ say that, Scott Douglas!" Cassie said, the venom evident and thick in her voice, "Don't you dare let Ba'al win." Unable to control her emotions anymore, Cassie fled from the room, into the woman's restroom, where she ran into the last open stall, locked the door, and collapsed in a crying heap next to the toilet.

Scott watched her leave, unable to move and follow her like she needed him to. Ba'al's words were just so fresh in his mind, he couldn't think straight. Part of him knew that Cassie was right, but then Ba'al's words about how he was "nothing but an unwanted clone of a great leader among the Tau'ri" kept on playing again in his mind.

"Where's the gym?" Scott asked, not removing his eyes from the last place he'd seen Cassie at.

"Third floor," Bobby said, concerned for the younger man who wasn't really younger, but unable to help him because he just didn't know enough about the situation.

Scott mumbled a 'thank you' as he calmly walked from the room, toward the elevator, intent on beating the shit out of a punching bag while pretending it was his original and Ba'al at the same time.

Daniel saw the look of concern on Bobby's face and sighed, "They'll be okay. Probably not today, but they'll make it. Both of them are really tough."

Bobby nodded, knowing that no words were needed.

---

A/N: Hmmm...review, review, review, review, review, review, review, review, review, review, review! I just got some rather interesting news from one of my friends and I WANT REVIEWS!


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: This chapter is solely being posted for the very kind and wonderful reviewers: **The Confused One**, **gothfaery** and **MuseUrania**. Thank you for your thoughts; no, Scott and Cassie aren't dating; and yes, it will all be explained in time.

* * *

Sam relished the feeling of being held by Jack, as he basked in the feel of holding her against himself. They were having a baby. 

When Sam said those words Jack was more terrified and thrilled than he'd ever been in his life – except on the day Charlie had been born. Briefly his thoughts turned dark as he thought about the son he had lost all those years before. He didn't want to make the same mistakes again, and was determined that he wouldn't. He was going to be a dad again. Last time … he'd screwed up. He wasn't going to screw up again.

They heard a thump against the door and went to investigate, only to find Teal'c standing there stoically with his hands behind his back, "Forgive my interruption, O'Neill, Colonel Carter, but all objectives of our mission have been completed."

"Sweet!" Jack said, with a grin. "How are Cassie and Scott?"

Teal'c's somber face revealed nothing, "Cassandra Fraiser has locked herself inside the women's restroom on the eleventh floor, and Scott Douglas is currently practicing his hand to hand in the work out area on the third floor of the building."

Sam sighed and moved to leave the interrogation room, Teal'c stepping aside automatically to let her pass. She was about to go try to find Cassie when she found Daniel and Bobby first – in the observation room. Her blood began to boil as she realized they would have seen everything Jack and she had done in the room. "Daniel! What the hell happened?"

The archeologist grimaced slightly as he watched his enraged female teammate advance on him and the NYPD detective. "Surprisingly, not much."

Sam's anger was still strong but she backed off a little, "Would either of you care to explain to me why the hell Cassie is currently crying her eyes out in the bathroom and why Scott is inflicting irreparable damage to a punching bag?"

Daniel looked down at his feet not really knowing what to say. Bobby saw this in an instant, and the need in Sam's eyes for an answer – so he told her what he had observed. "I think … that Scott's suicidal and … Cassie's been … helping him deal with it. She said something about … him being the only one who knew what she was going through."

Sam's eyes closed as she tried to get a firmer hold on her feelings. She knew what Bobby was talking about: Cassie had been the sole survivor of an attack made on her home planet by a Goa'uld named Nirti; and Scott had had his whole life ripped away from him when Loki cloned him.

Thinking about aliens brought Sam's thoughts to Vala and Daniel. Her eyes shot opened and looked at Daniel in concern, "Where's Vala?"

"She's with Alex going over something. I didn't stay around long enough to find out," Daniel said.

"And where are _they_?" Sam asked, very annoyed with everything Daniel was letting happen – not caring about his own well-being.

Daniel furrowed his brow, trying to remember where he'd left them, "I _think_ they're in the break room."

"How long?" Sam asked, the agitation very evident to the two men.

"About half an hour," Daniel said, still appearing to be unworried about the situation.

Sam turned her attention back to Bobby, "How far away is the break room from here?"

Bobby thought for a minute, not really ever having thought of the distance between the two rooms. He still hadn't responded when Teal'c and Jack walked in. "It's about two hundred meters, Carter," Jack said.

Sam growled, low in her throat as she rounded on Daniel, "Get your ass in that room now, Daniel! You may not care if you fall down and die – but _I_ _do_!"

Daniel looked down as his feet, muttered something in another language and shuffled out of the room to find the woman who couldn't leave his side for more than an hour without terrible consiquences.

When he was gone Sam turned back to the three men still in the room, "I'm going to go check on Cassie."

Jack, Teal'c and Bobby watched her leave in silence. Finally, Bobby turned to Jack, "I want to know what's going on, and I want to know _now_."

The general shook his head, "Not now. Wait until after work. We'll fill you in then."

Bobby checked his watch – it was only 10:00. How the hell did they go through a hostage situation in under four hours? Why the hell wasn't anyone else stressed out and worried about what was happening with Cassie and Scott? Why did he suddenly miss Nicole so much?

Alex walked into the room and noticed the introspective look on Bobby's face. She cleared her throat, bringing him out of his reverie. When his eyes met hers she said, "The Captain gave us the rest of the day off. He said he didn't want to see either of us in here until tomorrow afternoon."

Bobby nodded, registering her words carefully before turning to Jack, "Looks like the end of the work day is closer than you thought."

Jack just rolled his eyes, "Fine. Let's go. Hey, T? What happened to Ferretti and the rest of the crew?"

Teal'c raised one of his eyebrows in a signature move neither detective really understood before saying, "Colonel Pendergast has transported them back to the SGC, O'Neill."

"Ah," Jack said, motioning for Bobby and Alex to walk out in front of them, "Then let's go take care of some loose ends."

---

Scott pounded the bag, uncaring how much his muscles protested the sudden onslaught of use after so long being idle. He focused on the pain in his arms, letting it take the place of the pain of Ba'al and seeing _them_ again.

It wasn't like his life now was bad – he still had Cassie, and he was starting over. But there was still a hole in his heart that made him wonder if he'd ever be able to love again. When Cassie had told him that Jack and Sam had gotten married, Scott had been happy for them. Happy that his original had finally gotten his head out of his ass and told Sam how he – _they_ – felt about her.

That was the one thing he could never run from: his love for Sam Carter. It was overwhelming at times, and Scott wasn't sure he'd ever be able to have anything more emotionally binding than a one-night stand.

Cassie was his one tie to reality. She was the one person who knew what it felt like to have their entire world torn away from them because of someone else's choice. If it wasn't for her, he'd have killed himself a year before.

Why the hell was he such an ass? He'd made her cry again. Damn it. He needed to apologize and make things right with her. But how?

* * *

A/N: So? REVIEW! I have quite a few more chapters written out and it's really mean of you all to just NOT REVIEW. The Fall Holy Days are approaching and I'd really like to get this thing done before I leave for Wisconsin in two and a half weeks ... but I'll leave it all week I'm gone if no one reviews. 

I know, it's a terrible threat, but I'm willing to risk it just to hear some of your thoughts on this chapter. I'm a review monger.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: This is for **The Confused One**, who remains the only person to review each and every chapter of this story. Thank you for your advice!

Now, a lot is going to be explained in the next few chapters for all of you CI viewers who have no idea who any of the people from the SG1 realm are (and why Scott and Cassie should NEVER EVER date). Bear with me, please.

* * *

Sam held Cassie close as the younger woman cried, her tears soaking Sam's sweatshirt. "Shh, Cassie. I know. I know how pigheaded he can be. I know." 

Cassie's tears hit harder. "Why does he have to be to mean about it?" she asked between the sobs that wracked her body.

"It's just who he is, Cassie," Sam said, her own eyes filled with tears she refused to let fall. "It's who he's been for a long time. You have to teach him how and _help_ him get past this, Cass. You're the only one who knows what it's like."

There was a soft knock on the open stall door and the two women looked up to find Alex standing there, her eyes bright with unshed tears as she watched the scene. "Got room for one more down there?"

Sam nodded, removing one of her arms from around Cassie and beckoning her old friend to join them. Together the three of them huddled on the floor, none of them saying another word – just crying for the men in their lives that didn't seem to have a clue about their feelings at all. It felt good for all of them to just sit there and cry, knowing no one would judge them because of it or think less of them for it.

The guys sent Vala in to find out what had happened to the girls, only to find them crying and holding onto each other as if their lives depended on it. Silently she backed out of the restroom, trying to fight back the tears that filled her eyes.

"Well?" Bobby asked impatiently as Vala came back out, alone.

She shook her head, "It's going to be a while." Vala turned her attention and looked at all five of the men before her: Scott was standing a little off, unsure where he was supposed to fit into the mix and still concerned for Cassie; Jack and Daniel were glaring at each other as they waited; Teal'c was standing stoically between Daniel and Scott; and Bobby was pacing, finding no other way to release his pent up energy. Part of Vala wanted to go back into the restroom and join the women in a good cry, knowing that they'd let her in, for no other reason, then because she's female. The other part of Vala, the part that was in control, wanted to yell at these five men before her and figure out how three of them had managed to so thoroughly reduce their loved ones to tears.

Vala glared at all four men before turning to Teal'c (the only one she wasn't completely pissed off at, yet), "Do all Earth men have a problem keeping their women happy?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, the only show of his emotions, "Indeed. It is a common difficulty faced by the men of this planet."

She turned her attention to the three men who had so thoroughly reduced the women to tears, "I don't know what any of you three did, but you better fix it!"

Bobby looked at Vala with wide, innocent eyes, "What? What's wrong with Eames?"

Vala rolled her eyes, "One thing is probably that her name is _Alex_. She told me to call her that half an hour after meeting her – you've been her partner for four _years_!"

Bobby looked down, words escaping him as he battled the truth of her statement. Luckily, he was saved having to answer by the restroom door opening again and the three women in question emerging.

The tearstains on their faces were blatantly obvious to all five men, and all had the good thinking to know not to say anything about them. Soon the large group is seated in two cars and on their way to the hotel rooms Jack had rented for the week.

---

Sam, who had ridden in the car with Bobby behind the wheel, rushed out of the SUV as soon as it was parked and ran into the hotel, headed for the restroom she knew was in the restaurant next to the lobby.

When she got back out to the lobby, where the rest of the group was waiting, she shot a glare at Alex and Jack, "You could have warned me he drives like a maniac!"

Alex smirked at her old friend, "And miss that look on your face? Never."

Sam closed her eyes as she felt the blush rise on her cheeks, "Junior prom or sophomore winter formal?"

"Senior year homecoming," Alex responded, just to see the heat redden Sam's cheeks to a crimson color that the female detective found rather amusing.

Sam groaned before abruptly turning to Teal'c and seeking safety by his side. "You won't make fun of me, will you, Teal'c?" she asked tentatively.

Teal'c's eyes gleamed with a hint of humor Sam almost missed, "I do not believe it possible to transform your being into amusement, Colonel Carter."

Sam cocked her head, trying to suppress the growing smile on her face before she said, "You've been spending way too much time with Jack and Daniel."

Teal'c bowed his head slightly, "Indeed."

The group started walking toward the elevators and soon was in the biggest suit Sam had ever been in. As the rest of them got comfortable, Scott hung back, unsure where he was supposed to go, and where he belonged in this group that was once his family.

Cassie noticed his hesitance and added it to the other things she'd noticed he'd been doing since getting off Ba'al's ship. He'd been avoiding Jack at all costs. It was understandable that he'd be a little uncomfortable around his old friends, but_ this _was bordering on ridiculous. What made her mad, though, was that she was supposed to be his friend ... and she didn't know what was going on with him anymore. With a sigh she caught his eye and motioned for him to join her on one of the sofas in the overly expensive/large room.

He wanted to decline, but one look at her eyes told Scott that Cassie would make a scene to get him to sit down if she felt it was necessary.

So he sat down next to her, silently brooding about how wrong all this was and how all he wanted to be doing was finishing his English paper on the art of fishing like a 'normal' college student.

Alex started off the conversation by turning to the seven of the visitors and asking, "Care to explain in detail, now, what all this is about?"

It seemed that paper would have to wait until tomorrow.

* * *

A/N: So sorry, I had to add the fishing quip in there! Now, a LOT more is explained in the next chapter, and after that if you're still confused about something just let me know IN A REVIEW. Please? Is my subtlety becoming too much for you? 


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Enjoy! More explaination in this chapter.

* * *

"Cassie is the sole survivor of a disease that wiped out her entire planet," Sam started. "We found her and brought her back to Earth. She's been here ever since."

Bobby leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he studied the girl just revealed to be from another planet, "That doesn't explain why this Ba'al's after her."

Cassie glanced at Scott, seeking his reassurance before saying, "The Goa'uld who ruled my home world was performing medical experiments on my race. I'm an advanced form of the Tau'ri … not to mention my close ties to a lot of important people on Earth."

"Tau'ri?" Alex asked, scrunching her nose slightly at the unfamiliar word.

"Humans from Earth," Daniel supplied, trying to ignore Vala as she poked his ribs repeatedly. "Would you stop that!" he finally demanded.

Vala smiled at him innocently, "But you won't let me do anything else fun with you."

Daniel groaned, "I'll take you shopping tomorrow if you just _stop_."

She growled low in her throat as she sat back in the seat, her arms crossed like a child, "This is just as disappointing as when we had sex."

Daniel's eyes went wide as he tried to control his anger while the rest of the room just looked at him like he had just professed his love for Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet. "We never had sex, Vala," he said, his voice low and dangerous.

She cocked her head at him, "Then what was that on the Prometheus?"

"That was _me_ trying to take back the ship you stole!"

She huffed, turning her attention to Bobby and Alex, "So, how long have you two been together?"

"We've been partners for almost four years," Alex said, still a little mortified about the woman's comments from before.

"But they met once before – back in '85," Sam said, smiling as she remembered that summer clearly.

Alex's eyes widened as she remembered about what had happened that year – the year she and Sam had traveled across Europe together before Alex's wedding. "Oh, God, Sam! I forgot about that."

Bobby tried to remember ever seeing either of the two women in 1985, while he was in Germany, but he couldn't. "What happened in '85?" he asked, hoping something they would say would jog his memory.

"Don't you dare tell him!" Alex cried when Sam opened her mouth to speak. She may not remember what had exactly happened in that trip - and where she might have met Bobby, but she didn't want everyone _else_ knowing that.

Sam ignored her, "In 1985 we took a trip around Europe to commemorate our friendship right before Alex got married. It was the year after we'd graduated high school and the last … girly thing I did before going to the Academy."

"What'd you do, Aunt Sam?" Cassie asked, intrigued by the story so far.

Sam cocked her head, unsure what to say without saying too much. After a few moments of strained silence she replied, "Well, Cassie, remember a few years ago you were looking through my closet and you asked me about the garment bag in the very back?"

Cassie furrowed her brow, "The one that you never open and treat like a sacred object? Yeah, what about it?"

Sam smiled, "_That's_ what we did that summer."

Alex turned and smirked at Sam, "You kept it?"

Sam nodded, "Why not? It's not like I can go somewhere and get a new one. Did you keep yours?"

A delicate blush covered the detective's face as she nodded, "I've only worn it once since then, though … I'm not even sure it still fits."

"I'm sure it does, Lexi. You haven't exactly _grown_ since then," Sam said, reverting back to Alex's old nickname from high school.

Alex glowered at her friend, "No need to _remind_ me of that, Sammie. Or do I need to tell your friends here why you felt like crap the night of Senior year homecoming?"

Sam leaned forward, seemingly oblivious to the looks the men in the room were passing between her and Alex. "You wouldn't do that, Lexi. Because if you did, I'd be forced to tell your partner about that outfit in the back of your closet and remind him that he's seen you in it before."

Alex leaned forward, all too aware of the interested looks directed at the two of them, "The only way for you to do that, Sammie, is to tell your friends about the identical outfit in the back of _your_ closet – and I don't think you want to do that."

"Other than scarring poor Cassie for life, there's no reason why I would mind telling them about it, Lexi. None at all," Sam's smile was sinister and cold, causing a chill to run down Alex's spine.

"All right, I give up!" Jack finally said, drawing attention away from them and toward himself, "Is all this about that bar wench costume you have in your closet, Carter?"

Sam looked down at her hands, unwilling to meet her husband's eyes, "That's not a costume, Jack."

It was all that needed to be said. Bobby and Alex were now able to connect the dots of everything that had happened that summer and remember when they had first met each other. "Early July you two were working for a bar near the Rhine … had to dress up in the … most ridiculous outfits, if I recall correctly," Bobby said, a slight smile playing across his face as he looked down at his small partner.

Alex glared at Sam, refusing to meet Bobby's intense gaze, "It wasn't like I had a choice in the matter. Sam knew the damn bar owner!"

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A/N: Don't forget that reviews are my friends. 


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: I'll bet a lot of you guys thought I forgot about this! Nope, just busy, busy, busy with school and preparations for Sukkot.

* * *

Sam snorted, "Now, now, Lexi, don't get mad at me. You're the one that thought it would be a good idea to just _stop_ near the France/Germany boarder until mid-August."

"Now, now, Sammie, don't get mad but your husband and friends get to hear about how you can't hold your tequila," Alex said with a smile.

Daniel's head shot up, "I knew there was a reason you'd only do rum shots with me."

"You mean, beside the fact that you have the alcohol tolerance of a rabbit?" Scott asked snidely, cocking his head to one side.

Vala snorted, "Aw, Daniel, no wonder you always opt for the water when you take me out on those dates."

"THEY'RE NOT DATES!" Daniel cried, exasperated with how quickly the conversation had turned to bashing him. Quieter he said, "They happen to be the only way I can get out of the mountain without dying."

Vala rolled her eyes, "Daniel, you're so melodramatic. At the very worst you'd have fainted and been rushed back to the SGC and my awaiting arms."

Cassie laughed at the banter, although it was a little odd. "Why can't Daniel leave your side, Vala?" she asked after the laughter subsided.

Vala shrugged, "Well ... we're stuck together."

Daniel snorted, "That's the nice way of putting it. Vala stuck these bracelets on us that make it impossible to leave the side of the other person wearing the bracelet. Then we took a little trip using an Ancient transportation device, and when we got back and Vala took the bracelets off we found out that the effects of the bracelets are now embedded in us."

"What?" Bobby asked, not sure he understood at all what his friend had just said.

Sam smiled, having been on the team trying to reverse the side-effects of the bracelets, "There's a forcefield surrounding Daniel and Vala. Think of them as two magnets - Daniel, south; Vala, north. When she slapped the bracelets on them, they became stuck together, like two magnets." She grinned at her friend, "And now they have to wait for the force field to dissapate before they can leave each other's side otherwise the magnetic force will collapse and both of them will die."

Cassie snorted at the thought of Daniel being stuck to Vala forever before looking at her watch. Noticing the hour, she nudged Scott gently before getting up, "We'd better get going. I don't want my roommate to worry any more than necessary."

"Oh, we already called her," Bobby said, putting her mind at rest on that account, although he knew that there was another reason the young woman was chomping at the bit to leave with the clone of his friend. "And all your … professors."

Cassie smiled her thanks, "Lucy won't stop worrying until she sees me. It's just the way she is. Uncle Jack, Aunt Sam … Dad, make sure to stop by and see me before you leave, okay?"

Sam gave Cassie a tight hug, "No problem, sweetie. We're here 'til Sunday unless something happens."

"Which it always does," Scott and Jack said in unison, causing the original to glare at the clone menacingly.

Scott just glared back before preceding Cassie out of the room, leaving the rest of the group in silence.

After a few minutes of silence Teal'c broke the spell, "Colonel Carter, do you not require nourishment in your present condition?"

"What are you trying to say, Teal'c?" Sam asked, a little offended by her friend's word choice, although she completely understood his concern.

Teal'c's head cocked to one side again as he raised an eyebrow flawlessly, "Only that it is a most common occurrence for you to forgo supplying your body with nourishment in times when your mind is otherwise occupied."

"HEY!" Sam protested, "I've been working on that since Janet …"

Bobby and Alex exchanged a glance when Sam suddenly fell silent, unable to say the word all knew would end the sentence. The sad, lost puppy look that flashed across Daniel's face caused Bobby to wonder again just what his friends had been up to.

"Chinese or Italian?" Alex asked Sam, bringing their attention back to the present and off a long dead woman named Janet.

Sam furrowed her brow, "Thai. Are there any good Thai places around here that deliver? I really don't want to leave."

"There's a place a few blocks down that delivers," Alex said thoughtfully. "There should be a menu in the phone book."

Soon enough the menu was found and everyone circled what they wanted before the menu ended up with Bobby, who took out his cell phone and ordered.

"Oh, shit!" Sam said after Bobby hung up.

"What?" Jack asked, concerned at his wife's uncustomary exclamation.

"Pendergast didn't give me any time to pack. I don't have any clothes."

Just then there was a knock on the door to the hotel room. Jack got up to answer it and a few moments later the group heard the unmistakable sound of Jack's laughter. He walked back in with a middle-aged man by his side, in dress blues.

"Look who just stopped by?" he said with a smirk, pointing to the man by his side, "Apparently Davis here is our delivery boy."

Lt. Colonel Paul Davis looked at the General with a mixture of concern and amusement before turning to Colonel Carter and the rest of the group. He handed her a suitcase and said, "Vice President Hammond thought this might be useful, Colonel Carter. And Colonel Pendergast sends his sincerest apologies for the beaming incident."

Sam took the bag warily, "Who went through my clothes to pack?"

"Lt. Hailey." The name immediately put Sam at ease.

"Oh, okay. Thank you, Colonel."

Davis nodded once, a slight smile on his face, "My pleasure Colonel … did you ever get around to changing your last name to O'Neill?"

Sam shook her head, "No, not yet, Davis. We're not entirely sure it would be a good idea for me to change it in the first place."

Daniel turned to Jack and Sam, "You told _Davis_ before me? I thought I was your friend."

Sam rolled her eyes, "Davis was passing by in the hall when Jack proposed, Daniel – he was one of the witnesses. It has _nothing_ to do with your friendship to us that you found out this late. I've been friends with Alex for over twenty years and _she_ just found out a few hours ago."

Alex nodded, "That's true, Daniel. Although, I've had my suspicions that Sam was in a relationship with Jack since our last high school reunion."

Sam grinned at that, "Well, I wasn't exactly subtle about it, was I?"

Alex smirked as she looked at Sam, "Getting shit faced within two hours and proclaiming to a room full of your old high school peers that you thought your new CO … how did you put it, Sam? 'Has a nice ass that you could stare at for hours'. It's not exactly a discreet way of saying anything."

* * *

A/N: Okay, okay, hit me! I want to know what you all think... it'd be an excellent Sukkot present for me. Please? 


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Okay, sorry for the long delay. I was just hoping more of you would review, then I went on vacation and just got back a few days ago and had a lot of things I had to do to get back in the swing of school.

* * *

The blush that rose in Sam's cheeks was enough to solidify Alex's statement as fact. Jack, Teal'c and Daniel all turned to Sam, but it was Jack who asked, "When was this?"

Sam looked down at her hands and they heard her mumble something about the Touched virus under her breath.

"What was that?" Jack prodded, knowing that she would get him back for embarrassing her like this later.

"Two weeks after the Touched virus," she said as her eyes found Jack's in a glare, her voice clear, strong, and laced with contempt that she had to repeat herself at all.

Jack smirked, "You mean, right after you jumped me in the locker room?"

Sam glared at him, "I was under an alien influence AND you're the one that said, as I recall 'Why? I mean, not like this' before carrying me to the bloody _infirmary_!" she calmed down and went on in a much calmer tone of voice, "Besides: none of those people knew what I did for a living – or you for that matter, and I was pretty certain there was no possible way for it to get back to you."

Davis's cell phone started ringing and Daniel was positive he heard someone speaking in Russian 'Chevron one encoded; Chevron two encoded …' before Davis answered the call, "Excuse me."

"Thanks a lot, Lexi," Sam said sarcastically, "Did you really need to remind me of that reunion in front of everyone?"

Alex cocked her head to one side in a move she'd picked up from Goren, "Just as much as you needed to remind me of our days in France and the … more interesting things we did while we were there."

Davis returned to the room, clearing his throat, "I'm terribly sorry, but we have a situation on the _Prometheus_ that needs dealt with, General."

Jack didn't like the sound of that and had to try hard to suppress his groan as he asked, "What _kind_ of situation?"

"A mole, sir." Jack _really_ didn't like the sound of that.

"Oh!" Jack groaned, wincing as he thought about the information, "Do we have any idea who they're working for?"

Davis glanced at the two civilians who were not members of the SGC, concerned about the seemingly lack of security.

Sam noticed the look and said, "Don't worry, Davis, they've signed away their souls to the Air Force if they ever even think about what's going on right now … and they're the ones who helped us find Cassie and Scott."

Davis nodded, "We believe they're working for the Trust, sir."

Jack tried to get more information out of the man, "Any idea who it is?"

Davis looked down, "No, sir. All of the crewmembers on board the _Prometheus_ passed a zay'tark test five months ago."

"_Five_ months?" Jack asked, incredulously, "The program we have set up dictates a testing every _three_ months." He shot to his feet, getting nose to nose with Davis, "I want you to arrange for Pendergast to pick up all of us in two hours. And then I want you to figure out how the _hell_ security was breached! Those tests were designed to be fool proof – and now we have a leak."

"Sir, yes, sir!" Davis said before executing a perfect salute and leaving to make the arrangements he'd just been instructed to make.

Bobby watched the scene with a veiled expression covering his features. This was interesting. There was a leak on the _Prometheus_. He wondered how much information they were leaking to … the Trust. He glanced at Alex and her eyes clearly said she was on the same line of thought that he was: maybe they could help out their old friends.

As if Vala had heard their thoughts, she piped up, "Maybe we should take Bobby and Alex with us. They might be able to … speed up the process of finding the mole."

Jack stopped pacing and turned to look at his wife, "Carter?"

After a long moment, Sam nodded, "It's worth a shot. I don't think it would do any harm to bring them with us."

Jack's attention turned to the archeologist, "Daniel?"

"I'm with Sam on this one."

"T?"

"I concur, O'Neill. It would, at the minimum potential of the course of action, provide Detectives Goren and Eames with an opportunity to travel aboard the _Prometheus_," Teal'c said, his face blank, and the only signs of stress visible to those who knew him as well as the original members of SG-1 did.

Jack nodded, turning to the two detectives he asked, "How 'bout it? Feel like taking a jaunt to see other planets … aliens … really big guns?"

Alex scowled, "Guns? You want to take us to another planet to look at _guns_?"

Sam rolled her eyes, "He's joking, Lexi. We already showed you a lot of the guns in our armory. But, you _will_ be able to play with some poor soul's mind to get them to confess to being the mole … and play with some alien computers."

Alex perked up on that, "Alien computers? Hard drives and wires?"

Sam shook her head, "Crystals."

"_Crystals_?" Alex turned to Bobby, her eyes pleading with him to say that they could go. She _really_ wanted to see those computers. And if she happened to have a little fun while finding the leak … what's a girl to do?

Bobby nodded, "Let's call Deakins."

Davis walked back into the room, "There's no need for that, Detective. Vice President Hammond will be calling Captain Deakins shortly to explain the situation to him."

"Did you find out anything more about the leak?" Daniel asked.

Davis shook his head, "No, I'm sorry, Dr. Jackson. If you're going to go in and find the leak, you'll be going in blind."

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A/N: Ooohhh. Sorry, but you guys will get to see a lot of Bobby and Alex flexing their mental muscles catching this leak ... and getting them to confess. I couldn't help myself. PLEASE REVIEW!!! 


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: I debated for a long time about posting this chapter, but I think I'll put you all out of your missery and post now so that we can get on with the show.

* * *

Sam was silent as they waited for the food to arrive. They had a leak? It wasn't anything new, but that didn't mean it wasn't scary. She sat in a corner, staring blankly at the screen of her laptop that had been delivered with her clothes. She was looking at the schematics for the naquadah generator, trying to improve her already excellent design.

The others watched her intermittently, snatching glances at her as they spoke in hushed voices. Alex was listening intently as Daniel told her and Vala the history of the Stargate on Earth. Bobby, Teal'c and Jack were discussing the intricacies of different forms of armed forces. All were worried about the normally vibrant woman, who was just a few months pregnant, and was listlessly staring at the computer screen.

After long, silent moments had ticked by for Sam, she sighed and moved in her chair before closing the window that held the naquadah generator. She pulled up one of her mission files from years before … when the _Prometheus_ was still being built and there was another leak on board the big ship. When she was half way through re-reading her words, a thought struck her.

"Teal'c, did you bring the lap top Jack and I built for you?" she asked suddenly.

Teal'c nodded, "Indeed."

"Can you get it please?" Soon Sam was opening up a number of files on Teal'c's computer that could hold some clues SG-1 hadn't seen before.

"Carter?" Jack asked, wondering what she was up to, while already having a fairly good idea what his wife was doing.

Sam looked up, "Sir – Jack. They might see something we don't. They might be able to figure it out."

"The leak?" Alex asked.

Sam nodded, "These people were all hand picked by ten of the highest up men in the military. All of them should be loyal to the SGC and the Air Force … but somehow, the Trust got a hold of at least one of them." She handed Teal'c's lap top to Bobby, and her own to Alex, "I opened the personnel list – just click on a name and it will take you to their files. Maybe you'll find something we couldn't."

Alex nodded, accepting her reasoning. She noticed a different file opened on Sam's computer and maximized it on the monitor, "Sam? What's this?"

Already knowing what she was referring to, Sam explained, "That's my mission report from the last time we had a leak on the _Prometheus_ project."

"And you suspect the same organization is behind this leak?" Bobby asked, not taking his eyes off the lists of names.

"There's a very high chance of that," Jack said, outwardly calm, inwardly seething with rage that someone had double-crossed them _again_.

"Can you explain to us what the Trust are?" Alex asked, knowing that it would be better if Bobby wasn't interrupted in his search.

Sam turned to Jack, who turned to Teal'c, who turned to Daniel, causing the archeologist to groan before rubbing the bridge of his nose, "The Trust are a rouge group that was originally an intricate part of the NID. They claim to want the same thing as the SGC but are extremely more … liberal and less caring about how they get it."

"What?" Alex asked, turning her attention to Sam and Jack.

"They don't care who they hurt or what they do to get what they want," Davis said from his vantage point by the door. "The Trust has a tendency to kidnap their targets."

"Who's been the most recent hit?" Alex asked, casting a worried look toward Bobby.

"They kidnapped Dr. Jackson last year to help with a translation … after framing Teal'c for murder and kidnapping," Davis said, backing up a step from the door, his left hand reaching for his handgun. "Food's here."

"Good, Davis, you can pay for it," Jack said, his smart-ass smirk in place as Davis looked back at him as if he was crazy. "Don't make me make that an order."

Bobby smiled slightly at his old friend's antics – he was just glad he didn't have to pay. He was looking over the list of personnel again, hoping a name would pop out at him. What did pop out was just that.

"Croydon." Bobby looked up and met Sam's eyes, "Who's Lt. Croydon?"

Sam scrunched her brow, "Croydon … they're not in any of the staff I picked out."

"They're in mine," Daniel said with a scowl. "Lt. Angelina Croydon, Ph.D. is a linguist. I brought her on board ten months ago. She was assigned to the _Prometheus_ … five months ago."

Bobby's fear ridden eyes met Alex's and she wordlessly returned her attention to her laptop and found the name among the list. She clicked on the link and took in a sharp intake of breath.

"What is it?" Bobby asked. "Is it her?"

The members of SG-1 tried to scour their memories for who Croydon was – if anyone important. They all came up blank.

"Yes, thank you," Davis said, closing the cell phone no one had noticed him use. They looked at him, silently asking who he had been talking to. "That was Captain Hailey. I just had her run a check for a Lt. Angelina Croydon and she told me that Lt. Croydon was reported missing last year by her boyfriend, Frank Smith. Two months ago, the body of a woman matching Croydon's description washed onto the southern California shoreline. I just requested Hailey petition the police department down there to get a sample of the DNA found on the deceased. We should know within hours if it's Lt. Croydon or an imposter on our ship."

Bobby looked at Alex, "You can tell them right now, Eames."

Alex looked up, trying to keep her emotions out of her face as she said, "Either she has an identical twin sister, Bobby, or Nicole Wallace is on that ship."

Sam and Daniel exchanged a nervous look; Vala fidgeted and looked like she was about to scream; the muscle on Teal'c's jaw visibly twitched; Davis stood at parade rest, waiting for O'Neill to tell him what to do; Bobby and Alex just stared at each other, the first pleading for the second to help him keep his sanity.

It was Jack who broke the silence. He got to his feet and rounded on Davis, saying in a deadly low voice, "I want the security system for _all_ aspects of the Stargate Program put under scrutiny as of _yesterday_. And I want to know how the hell a serial killer was able to pose as one of the best linguists in the country and get on board what is _supposed_ to be the most secure facility in the solar system! And I want you back on a plane to Washington within the hour to find out all of this, Davis – _now_."

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A/N: You know, my review stats for the last seven chapters are quite funny: 4,3,4,3,4,3,4. If this continues much longer, I don't know what I'll do. But I'll say this much: I don't think I'm updating until more than three of you review. 


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: It's not that five reviews is very much better than three or four - but thanks for breaking me out of that damned pattern: **kakomaan**,** benetrice**,** The Confused One**,** obsessedwithstabler **and** ccabello**. I really appreciate you five taking the time to review.

* * *

Sam had just gone to the bathroom – the Thai having not agreed with the baby at all, when the seven of them were beamed out of the apartment. As soon as she realized where she was, Sam put a hand over her mouth in an attempt to stop the morning sickness from spewing all over the bridge. Jack took one look at his wife before turning to the thoroughly embarrassed Pendergast.

"What the hell made you think it was a good idea to beam us up when she'd just left the room, Pendergast?" the general asked the colonel, irritated by the whole turn of events.

Colonel Pendergast blushed, turning to the lieutenant on his left he said, "Beam all of them except the General over to the infirmary."

Before she could do what she had just been asked to, Alex raised her hand, "I think I'd prefer to walk. That thing reminds me way too much of Bobby driving."

The mention of the male detective's driving habits was too much for the poor colonel, doubled over on the floor: it all came up.

Sam started coughing, effectively bringing up the rest of the food that her stomach had disagreed with. "Pendergast would you _please_ stop doing that!" Sam nearly yelled.

"My apologies, Colonel Carter," Colonel Pendergast said with a nod to the lieutenant at his side, the sick colonel was beamed into the infirmary with Daniel, Vala and Teal'c.

General O'Neill mode on, Jack turned to Pendergast, "Let's take a walk, Pendergast." He motioned for Goren and Eames to follow them as they left the bridge and started toward the infirmary.

Once they were securely within the corridor, on their way, Pendergast turned to Jack, "I don't know what to do, Jack. It could be any of them. Who do I trust?"

Jack glanced back at Bobby and Alex, "We have an idea who it is, Lionel, but it's going to be tricky."

"A very _good_ idea," Bobby said, antsy as always as they walked down the corridor.

Pendergast stopped and turned to his right, keying in the code to open the door to the unknown room. When it was open, Pendergast ushered the other three in, and closed the door behind him.

Bobby and Alex looked around, noting there was only one other person in the room – a short blond woman who was watching footage from one of the security cameras. She didn't look up when the door clicked shut, just continued watching and taking notes on the legal pad beside her.

Pendergast looked at her, turned to Jack and rolled his eyes. He turned back to the young woman and barked, "Atten-_tion_!"

The woman jumped before coming to attention, facing the colonel, general and two detectives. "Sirs, I didn't hear you come in."

Jack smirked, "At ease, Hailey. Nice job with the promotion, by the way. Captain, I hear."

The young woman blushed, adverting her eyes from the Major General in embarrassment, "Thank you, sir. Colonel Carter put in the recommendation after … actually, General, I don't know why she put in the recommendation."

Jack's smirk became a genuine smile as he said, "It could have had something to do with what you did for the citizens of P7G-9352. I hear they made a national holiday to celebrate you."

The smile of accomplishment slowly invaded Hailey's face, "Yes, sir. The problem really wasn't that complex…"

"Ahh!" Jack stopped her before she could even start, "What have I told you about that? It's the same thing I tell Carter all the time."

Hailey grinned, finally looking back up at the man who had helped her so much in her early years in the Air Force, "No techno babble and there's no doubt in your mind that I'm smarter than you and could make up an algorithm for the best way to feed the dog that you don't have. Sir."

Jack nodded, "Good. Now, have you met Bobby and Alex?"

Hailey snapped off a perfect salute to the two new comers dressed in civvies. "Captain Jennifer Hailey, at your service, ma'am, sir."

Bobby snapped off a salute in reply, releasing Jennifer's hand from its perch on her forehead. "No need for that, Captain. Neither Eames nor myself is in the military anymore. And I was enlisted."

"General?" Hailey asked, in confusion.

"They're here to help us plug the leak, Hailey," Jack said, his voice and face now deadly serious. "Apparently it's someone they know. On the archeological/linguistic staff."

Hailey's eyes widened, "Was I right, then? Is it Lt. Croydon?"

Bobby looked at her sharply, "What makes you think it's Croydon?"

She motioned toward the computer she had been looking at when they walked in. "I'll show you."

The four of them followed her to the computer, and found it displaying a number of personnel files that Jack and Pendergast both deemed need-to-know. Jack shot a glare at Pendergast, "Would you care to tell me how she got a hold of this information?"

Lionel shook his head, "I don't know, General. There's only five people on the staff that access code."

Alex snorted, causing all three Air Force officers to look at her oddly. "There's always a back door she could have gone through."

Pendergast was shaking his head, but Jack and Hailey just started nodding. "It's very sophisticated – created by myself, Colonel Carter and Thor, but we designed a very cryptic back door in case a situation arose where we would need it."

Bobby looked at them sharply, "Like what?"

Hailey and Jack exchanged a look before Jack finally said, "A foothold situation. Any more than that we're not allowed to say."

"What information has she looked into?" Bobby asked.

"SG-1's personnel files, medical files and mission reports," Hailey responded. "It's like she wants to learn the most about you five that she can. She keeps on pulling up the files related to Hathor, the Entity and –"

"Wait a second. _The_ Entity as in the one that invaded Carter a few years ago?" Jack asked, growing very concerned very fast.

Hailey nodded, "Yes, sir. It seems she's researching not only the team's history, but also the history of your relationship with Colonel Carter."

Jack went white at the thought of how much this psycho could glean from their mission reports, "Has she been able to read the ones from P3R-118?"

Hailey checked the log, returning with the news, "Only yours and Major Carter's. Sir, I read both those reports – I doubt she'll be able to find anything useful in them."

Bobby took Jack's attention when he asked, "What happened on P3R-118?"

Jack's haunted eyes found his friend's, "Enough to fuel a kidnapping in attempt to gain control of the SGC."

* * *

A/N: P3R-118 is the planet SG-1 went to in _Beneath the Surface_, for those of you who watch SG-1. For those of you who don't, what happened was SG-1 had their memories altered and Sam (Thera) and Jack (Jonah) WE THINK had a torrid love affair while being worked to death in an underground facility meant to keep an above ground city warm and fed. It was very touching when Jonah told Thera that he didn't remember much but he did remember feeling feelings for her.  
Of course, then they got themselves out of the big mess. 


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: Thanks to the few of you who reviewed. I'm getting into a rhythm now, and the BA fluff is just a few chapters away.

* * *

"Now, if you were showing around two civilians new to the ship, where would you start?" Sam asked Daniel as they walked down the corridor with Teal'c and Vala, trying to find the other three members of their party.

Daniel cocked his head to one side, trying to 'step into Jack' (as Deakins would have said, if he had been there), but soon shook his head, "I've got nothin'."

"Perhaps we should explore the arena of electronic recording devices used to ensure the safety of this vessel?" Teal'c offered in his most formal and subtle voice.

"You mean the security room, Teal'c?" Sam asked, wondering if she had interpreted him correctly. Sometimes it was difficult to do, but over the years the Tauri members of SG-1 had perfected the art as best as they could.

Half way to the security room, a lieutenant stopped them when she recognized the group, "Colonel Carter?" the woman asked.

Sam stopped and looked at the woman, "Lt. Newsman, right?" At the affirmative nod from the younger woman, Sam asked, "What can I do for you?"

The woman grinned, "I have a theory I've been working on in my spare time that I was hoping you could take a look at … I was going to email it to you, but if you have a free moment …?"

Sam glanced back at her companions, wondering if they saw anything suspicious about this situation that she didn't. When she got positive reactions from all three of them, she turned again to Lt. Ashley Newsman, "Sure. I've got a few minutes. Daniel, why don't you and Vala go on and try to find out where General O'Neill got to – Teal'c can keep me company while I look over what Lt. Newsman has."

"Very well, Colonel Carter," Teal'c said with a slight nod.

"Okay, Sam. We'll come get you when we find them," Daniel said as he and Vala headed off again in the direction of the security room.

Turning back to Newsman with a smile, Sam said, "Lead the way, lieutenant."

Ashley smiled in response before turning and leading the pair down a different corridor, toward her lab. Lt. Croydon said she'd wanted to meet the famed Colonel Carter, but was unsure what the reception would be if she just marched right up to her and introduced herself. Ashley knew that Carter was nice – and would have been kind to the lieutenant if she had sought her help or her friendship.

But if Angelina Croydon had self-esteem issues, then it was up to Ashley to help her friend out by commandeering some of the good Colonel Carter's time. It was the least she could do for the woman who'd given her so much confidence in _other_ areas of her life. Ashley was almost positive she'd do anything for Angelina. The woman was like a god. Briefly, so briefly she almost didn't register the emotion, Ashley wondered if that was what the Jaffa felt like during their years of slavery to the Goa'uld.

---

Angelina Croydon (A.K.A. Elizabeth Hitchens, Elizabeth Hayes, NICOLE WALLACE) was gleefully happy at her good fortune. Here she was, just waiting for her chance to commandeer the ship when in walked the _original_ SG-1, just lax enough in their security as to allow her to kidnap Colonel Carter … with a little bit of help from her latest conquest – Lt. Ashley Newsman.

Those zat guns worked better than Nicole could have hoped: not only did they allow her to knock out Ashley, Carter _and_ Teal'c (hot stuff, if she did say so herself) in under five seconds, but she was also able to lock Teal'c and Ashley into one of the storage rooms while she took Sam to a 'secure' room within _The_ _Prometheus_.

After constructing an elaborate trap around the dear Colonel Carter, Nicole had nothing to do but wait for her to wake up. She'd heard rumors about this woman – the strength she exhibited and her control … fighting skills. Nicole was giddy at the prospect of meeting her and talking one-on-one with the warrior. The only thing that could possibly make it better would be if dear, dear Bobby was there to watch …

---

Teal'c woke up abruptly from the effects of the zat blast. He knew immediately where he was, and who was with him. What he couldn't understand was _why_ Lt. Newsman (known to him and the rest of SG-1 as one of Sam's star students) had helped the psychotic bitch that had infiltrated the staff of _The Prometheus_. He had every intention of finding out once she awoke.

He didn't have to wait very long.

"Oh, God," Ashley moaned as she woke up to her first ever headache from a zat blast. "What happened?"

"Lt. Croydon is responsible for what has taken place," Teal'c said, sitting with his back against one of the walls. "Lt. Newsman, if we were on Chulak you would be sentenced to die by the hand of those you have betrayed." His cold, fierce eyes bored into her, "Be grateful we are _not_ on Chulak."

Ashley looked at the Jaffa with wide, fearful eyes, "I swear I didn't know she was going to do that, Teal'c. She just said she wanted to meet Colonel Carter – I didn't see any harm in that."

"Why did she not request an personal encounter with Colonel Carter herself, Lt. Newsman?" Teal'c asked, his voice low as he looked for a way out of the room they were trapped in.

Ashley shook her head, "I – I don't know." Tears filled her eyes as she began to realize that she had led Colonel Carter – her mentor and one of the bravest women she knew – into a carefully laid trap.

"We must escape and bring warning to the others," Teal'c said, reminding the young woman of the immediate danger at hand. She got up and started helping him look for a way to get out of the supply closet.

---

Captain Sally Marks frowned as the data came up on her screen. One of the supply closets on Level Eight had been locked off. "Henderson?" she asked one of the others on the flight crew, "Take a look at this."

Major Eddy Henderson, 2IC of _The Prometheus_, walked over to see what had caught Marks's attention. When he saw the blinking red light that signified an unauthorized lock of a door (the only authorized locks were for personnel quarters – and even then it had to go through the proper channels) he frowned. "See what you can do about opening it, Marks," he said as he made his way to the intercom to check on Captain Hailey and see if Pendergast was with her.

"General O'Neill? This is Major Henderson, sir. There's a problem."

* * *

A/N: Tehe. I'm so evil. So, feel like reviewing? Remember, I update when I'm happy, and reviews make me happy. ...Not to mention I'm the only one who knows how this will end. 


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Okay, this one has lots more Nicole in it - and some Bobby at the end. But mostly Nicole messing with Sam and Jack.

* * *

Sam was awake some minutes before she opened her eyes. Moving as little as possible, she tried to gage how bad her situation was. Her hands and legs were tied together and there was something strapped to her stomach. She had to breath using her chest instead of her full diaphragm, making for a very uncomfortable situation. She wondered if the object strapped to her stomach was hurting her baby – and she prayed to any god that might be real and listening that her baby would be okay.

"Colonel, I know you're awake," she heard a woman say in a British accent. "Your breathing's sped up."

Sam slowly opened her eyes, coming face to face with her abductor, "You know you won't get away with this, Nicole." She wasn't _exactly_ sure it was Nicole Wallace/Lt. Croydon, but who else would have the gall to kidnap her? Everyone at the SGC liked Colonel Sam Carter Ph.D. She'd made the 'Gate work.

Nicole's smile widened into a grin as she digested this information, "So Bobby _is_ here. How utterly delicious. But you're forgetting one _very_ important thing, Colonel – I have you and your unborn baby as hostages. Surely you don't think your husband would intentionally kill his child for the second time?"

Sam's eyes widened slightly. She knew about Charlie and the baby. She knew she was married to Jack. The other thought that went through her mind was that Nicole obviously hadn't read the mission report on the alien entity that had invaded the SGC and Sam's body a few years before. Jack _had_ killed her to save the base.

"Where'd you get your information from?" Sam asked, her face and voice cold and detached from the situation. It was the only way she knew to deal with this. Nicole didn't have the torture devices of the Goa'uld – all she could throw at Sam was mind games. Games Sam refused to play.

"Now, now, Colonel. I'm the one who's asking the questions here. How long do you think it will take for Teal'c and Lt. Newsman to get out of the room I left them in? Once they're out, no doubt they'll go try to find General O'Neill, and darling Bobby. Is Alex with him? Oh, no matter. Bobby's here."

There was something in the way Nicole talked about Bobby that tipped Sam off to her true motivation. She was in love with Bobby. It seemed to be more of an obsession, but Sam had spent eight years trying to act like she _wasn't_ in love – she knew the signs. Taking slow, deliberate breaths, Sam said, "Do you ever wonder why he doesn't love you, Nicole?"

Nicole stood up and stalked over to Sam. Pulling Sam's head back by her hair she knelt down and whispered, "He _does_ love me, Colonel Carter. Why else would he keep on coming back to me and letting me get inside his head?"

The telephone/intercom rang and Nicole let go of Sam's head to answer it, allowing Sam the opportunity to study the woman who held her captive.

"Hello?" Nicole answered cheerfully.

"_We want to talk to Colonel Carter,"_ the voice on the other end said abruptly.

Nicole's smile was mad and wild, "She's rather tied up at the moment. Can I take a message for her?"

"_No. But I'll talk to you instead. Give me my wife back."_

"Oh, is this General O'Neill? It's marvelous to hear your voice at last. I've heard _so_ much about you. But I don't think I want to talk to people who leave guns lying around where little children can pick them up. Just because of that, Colonel Carter has some very heavy explosives strapped to her stomach."

"_DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO ME ABOUT CHARLIE!" _Jack yelled into the phone, causing Nicole to take it away from her ear and wince slightly.

"Aren't you afraid?" Nicole asked, her psychotic smile firmly in place as she spoke, "Aren't you terrified out of your mind that it will happen again? To the unborn child your … _lovely_ wife is carrying?"

"_It _won't_ happen again,"_ Jack whispered. _"And my gun _was_ safely put away, Nicole." _He hung up the phone, knowing that he lost the round and it was time to regroup.

Nicole cocked her head to one side after she hung up, before turning to Sam, "You need to teach your husband some manners, Colonel. I find it surprising he rose as far as he has with that record of his."

Sam stared at her coolly, not letting her rage and anger show on her face or in her voice, "You don't know anything about him."

Nicole plopped down on a chair close to Sam, leaning forward intently, "Then tell me. Tell me _all_ about how he still wakes up with nightmares from his time as a POW. Tell me how good he really is in bed, and how long it takes for him to have you screaming with pleasure. Tell me, Colonel Carter."

* * *

Jack stared at the phone, unable to get control over his emotions – his anger and his fear. How the hell did she know all of that? How the hell did she know Sam was pregnant? How did she know they were married? How …?

Jack felt an arm on his shoulder, and he turned to find Daniel staring at him. The words the archeologist said during their first suicide mission to Abydos rang throughout Jack's mind: _"No one here wants to die. It's a pity you're in such a hurry to."_

"Daniel," it was all Jack needed to say.

Daniel nodded once before turning to Hailey, "Can you tell me which rooms are locked off from here? Other than the one Teal'c and Newsman are in?"

Jennifer nodded, and typed in a code to the computer. She looked up at him after a minute, "There's another supply room locked off – I tried opening it but it seems she welded the door closed. My guess is she knows she's not getting out, sir, except by someone beaming them out."

Daniel looked at Jack, "Why don't we just beam them out?"

Jack shook his head, "She said Carter has explosives strapped to her, Daniel." He turned to Bobby and Alex, "Would she hesitate to kill her if she thought she wasn't getting out of here alive?"

Bobby and Alex exchanged a look, wondering how much they should tell the distraught General. It was finally Bobby who said, "She's not stupid … if she knows there's no other way off this ship, then she _will_ kill Sam."

* * *

A/N: Sorry about the lack of Bobby/Alex - they get their turn for the next few chapters. Don't worry. Please review. 


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: I'm going to try to finish this story before the end of the month.

* * *

For a few moments the uproar from the SGC personnel in the room was so loud, Alex wasn't sure she could hear herself think. Finally, she took the whistle out of her pocket and blew. Hard.

Everyone stopped talking and looked at her, awe-struck that she had even thought of doing something like that. Alex took a deep breath before starting to talk, "Okay, now yelling _isn't_ going to get Sam out of that room any faster." She looked at Pendergast, Daniel and Jack, "Now, is there anyone that might be able to … _beam_ her out?"

Hailey shook her head, "That wouldn't do any good. Those explosives are _very_ powerful. If she got her hands on the heaviest explosives onboard … General, that would be the same kind SG-1 used to blow up Apophis's mother ships in the first attack against Earth eight years ago. Even if Colonel Carter wasn't in the room, the bomb could be detonated just as effectively."

"So we need to … beam out the controls?" Daniel asked, turning to Jack (who was the resident explosives expert in the room despite the fact that Hailey designed numerous weapons to that effect).

Jack shook his head, trying to get past the fear that he might lose Sam and the baby, "There's probably something on the bomb itself that would allow her to detonate immediately without the controls." His head shot up and he looked at Daniel with a clear expression. One word was all it took to convey his message to the members of the SGC: "Lya."

"We're hours away from their planet, General," Pendergast commented while Daniel and Vala's faces took on pensive expressions.

"Who's Lya?" Vala finally asked, voicing the question for herself and the two civilians.

Daniel turned to the woman he was stuck to and asked, "Have you ever heard of the Nox?" after she shook her head in a negative answer, he explained, "The Nox are one of the Four Great Races – right up there with the Asgard, Ancients and Furlings. Lya's one of them. They specialize in … hiding things and playing tricks with the mind."

"So … you can get her to hide the controls for the bomb, then beam Nicole into a holding cell, right?" Alex asked, wondering if that was even possible.

Vala nodded, with a grin, "And then you can play with her while we travel back to Earth so that Daniel can take me on that date he promised me last week."

Daniel glared at her before Jack answered, "Actually, we'll have to make sure she's really the only mole on board … then we'll have to decide where she'll be prosecuted."

"Not to mention what we want done with her," Pendergast commented.

At Bobby and Alex's confused looks Jack explained, "It's more of a matter of what _you_ want done with her: the most agonizing death you could imagine; swift and virtually painless; or a trip back to Earth for _our_ justice system."

"What do you mean, Jack?" Bobby asked, a frown creasing his face.

Jack shared a look with Hailey before saying, "We've saved a lot of people out there. They owe us favors – _big_ favors. I can think of two very powerful races right now that would be happy to torture her to death because of what she's done."

Daniel coughed, "Three."

The General looked at him, "The Tok'ra don't count. Selmak was the only one of them I trusted and she's dead."

Daniel nodded, conceding the point and letting the matter drop, knowing there was a lot more Jack had to say on the issue but would never admit to. (Like that it was more Jacob - Sam's dad, and Selmak's host, that Jack trusted.)

Jack nodded to Pendergast, "Set the course for the Nox home world. Hailey? How long should it take to get there?"

"We've already been moving in that general direction, sir. It would take us five hours tops to hit orbit," Hailey said, silently wondering if Sam had that much time.

Bobby shook his head, "That's too long."

Pendergast looked at Hailey for a second before turning to Jack, "Sir, I believe we're in close proximity to P4X-131 – where you and SG-1 met Warrick for the first time."

"How long?" Jack asked, his voice low with worry.

"Five minutes max, sir," Pendergast replied.

Jack nodded, "Do it." Pendergast and Hailey saluted him before leaving to go set the course of the ship to P4X-131.

"How's going to that planet going to help us get to the Nox planet?" Bobby asked, a little confused as to what was going on.

It was Daniel who answered, "P4X-131 has a Stargate on it. We can 'Gate to the Nox planet and have a few representatives there within seven minutes."

* * *

Nicole cocked her head to one side as she studied the woman who was her captive, "I read your mission files, you know." 

Sam was inwardly wondering how the hell the maniac had managed that trick, but refused to allow her face to reveal any of those emotions. Instead she said, "Really? Good reading?" She'd really been spending _way_ too much time around Jack.

Nicole nodded, "Oh, yes. Especially reading about how your relationship with Colonel O'Neill has transformed through the years. It's most … titillating to read about your unrequited love."

"It was hardly unrequited, Nicole," Sam said, trying to remain calm. "We are, after all, married and about to start a family. Not like your relationship with Bobby. Now _that_ is unrequited love."

Nicole leaned forward intimidating even with her small frame, "What makes you so sure he doesn't love me?"

Sam smiled, cold and mysteriously, "Because if he loved you, he would have let you get away with your crimes. Instead, whenever you come on the scene, he grows closer and closer to Alex. You're infatuation with him is going to end with him in _her_ bed – _not_ yours, Nicole."

The maniacal look in Nicole's eyes frightened Sam as much as any of the System Lords had. The woman who held her captive had as much power as they did (for the moment), and a _lot_ less control.

Where the hell was her rescue?

* * *

A/N: So? What do you think? The next chapter is entirely from Alex and Bobby's perspective - as will be the majority of the rest of the story. Please review. 


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: Thanks for the reviews. I'm sorry, **obsessedwithstabler**, that you're so confused. I hope things become clear, but I really don't know what to say. If anyone else is confused, please raise your hand...

* * *

Getting to the planet, and finding Lya was the first easy thing that had happened all day. Teal'c and Lt. Newsman had finally gotten out of their makeshift prison after some techs had blasted the door away, revealing a _very_ pissed off Jaffa and a very contrite lieutenant seconds away from tears.

When Daniel asked Bobby and Alex if they wanted to come with them to find Lya, the pair jumped at the opportunity to travel through the Stargate. Bobby asked Jack what it felt like and he responded by saying, "Well … have you ever ridden in an airplane under heavy fire from the enemy?" At Bobby's affirmative Jack said, "It's way worse than that. Imagine the biggest, least stable roller coaster ride you've ever been on, double it, and add in a freezing cold that sticks to your bones. _That's_ the Stargate."

Alex looked a little green around the edges just thinking of something like that. "I think I'll stay with the ship. Just in case they need someone to talk to Nicole," she added hastily, lest Bobby would catch on about her hatred of roller coasters. It was one of the reasons she hated his driving.

With one last smile, Bobby waved to Alex as the transportation beaming technology kicked in (Bobby had a remote locater now attached to the outside of his jacket) and he was swept away, along with Jack, Daniel and Vala. Alex sighed and turned to the big Jaffa, who had opted to stay on board the vessel in case something happened that required someone to beat the pulp out of Nicole Wallace … not that actually _said_ that – but everyone who knew him knew that's what he was thinking by the way the muscle in his jaw twitched, his right eyebrow raised just a bit and the head tilt. It was pure Jaffa-revenge look at its scariest and finest.

"Teal'c?" Alex asked as they returned to the security room.

"Detective Eames?" Teal'c replied, in his usual, formal tone of voice.

"Are they going to be successful getting this … Lya to help us?" Alex was unusually hesitant, unsure of what she was even doing there. This wasn't something for a NYPD detective to be handling! This was something for the FBI or the Air Force. She was scared out of her mind that something was going to happen to Bobby … or Sam. What if they didn't get Nicole in time? What if Nicole got away again? What if …?

Teal'c cocked his head at her, his calm demeanor soothing the detective while he replied, "Lya has been very helpful to us in the past, Detective Eames. It is unwise to pursue a mediocre vehicle of thought that forces you to see all unwanted outcomes."

_Mediocre vehicle of thought_? What the hell? Alex scrunched her brow in a frown, trying to figure out what he was saying. It finally hit her like a ton of bricks, "You mean, a train of thought, Teal'c?"

"Indeed, that was the intention my words were meant to relay, Detective Eames." She didn't see it, but there was a slight smile on his face as Teal'c commended himself for sidetracking her mind from the danger she could do nothing about – at least for a few moments of time.

"Call me Alex, Teal'c."

Teal'c bowed his head once as they walked into the security room, "Very well, Alex Eames." They walked into the room to find Hailey on the telephone with someone.

"NO! Don't hang up, please. Here, Detective Eames is here. Do you want to talk to her?" the Captain asked as she saw Alex and Teal'c walk into the room. The person on the other end, whom they could only assume was Nicole, said something, causing Hailey to put her hand over the mouthpiece and turn toward Alex, "She wants to talk to you."

Alex felt her blood run cold as she mechanically took the phone from Jennifer Hailey and put it to her ear, "Hello, Nicole."

"_Detective Eames! How wonderful to talk to you. Such a pity Bobby isn't there to witness my triumph … oh well, you'll have to do."_

The detective scowled at Nicole's attitude. It was like she thought she couldn't lose. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time she'd proved herself just as capable of evading Bobby and Alex and the rest of the police department, as they were at tracking her. "What do you want, Nicole?"

"_Now, now, Alex, no need to get snippy. That won't do our dear Samantha any good, will it? Or maybe you do want the baby to die. After all, she has what you don't – and all that you want in the bottom of your heart."_

"You, too, Nicole," Alex shot back as she tried to keep her composition, "She has happiness. That's something you can only dream about. But I don't want her happiness, Nicole. I have my own. I have Bobby."

---

"So, Goren," Jack asked as they made their way back to the Stargate with Lya, "What's up with you and Alex?"

Bobby muttered something unintelligible as he continued to walk forward, Lya and Daniel conversing (and amusing) Vala only a few paces ahead.

"What was that?" Jack asked. He needed something to take his mind off Sam – badgering Daniel usually worked, but with Bobby right there … he couldn't help himself.

"She's _just_ my partner," Bobby said again, louder.

Jack nodded, "Yeah, and Sam was _just_ my 2IC. No way, Bobby. I spent eight years trying to hide like that. I learned to read the signs. When did you realize?"

Bobby thought about. He knew when he was _absolutely_ sure that he was in love with Eames … but when he first started to suspect something? "I guess the first time I began to realize was when we were working on this case to bring down a guy who killed four women and was about to kill a fifth. I asked her to go into the interrogation room alone with him, knowing that he was going to hit on her – and she went. When we finally got the guy to confess … she gave me the scariest glare ever. And all I can remember thinking is 'God, she looks sexy when she's mad at me.' Then I offered to take her out to drinks and dinner to make up for putting her in that situation." He turned his head slightly toward Jack, "What about you and Sam?"

Jack smirked at the memory of their first meeting and his first hint at 'inappropriate' feelings for Sam. It hurt to remember that time when she was in so much danger, but he knew Bobby needed to know he wasn't the only fool in the world, "The first time I met her she gave me this big long speech about how women were just as competent and men … then she challenged me to arm wrestle. I was completely lost after that. But I don't think I really realized it until the first time she was kidnapped."

Bobby felt his heart stop for a second, "I don't think I could handle it if Eames was kidnapped," he admitted.

Jack nodded, "It was worth all the pain of not knowing to see Carter kick the ass out of the asshole who thought he owned her."

Lya turned back to look at Jack and Bobby. She stopped talking to Daniel and changed her course to walk back to the two men. The smaller woman stopped in front of the two men, a serine look on her pale face as she said, "True love is rare. Have no more worries, Jack, Bobby, they will be fine."

For a moment, Bobby wondered how she could know that, but he said nothing, because the sincerity in her eyes reaffirmed in his heart that it would turn out all right.

* * *

A/N: ...Now, all of you with one hand raised, take your other hand, click the button that says 'OK' on it (when the menu is on the default of 'submit review', of course) and tell me what you're confused about.

All of you that are not confused, please feel free to tell me to go to hell for making all those other people confused.


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: I'm posting this so quickly because my number of reviews relative to hits has suddenly increased to 1:10 ... roughly. Anywho, thank you lots, and I hope a lot more of you people who have this thing on alert (21 the last time I checked) will review this chapter to throw rotten fruit at me.

I know this is shorter than normal, but ... you'll see why.

* * *

To say that Alex was anxious for Bobby and Jack to get back with this Lya person was a gross understatement. She was in full-blown, pacing-can't-stay-still-I-spend-way-too-much-time-around-Bobby-Goren mode of anxiety by the time they got back. By the time they actually got back to the security room (Vala and Daniel preferring to wait it out form the bridge to make sure nothing went wrong on that end), Alex gave serious thought to jumping into Bobby's arms in relief. 

"Lya, this is Alex," Jack introduced the two women, "Alex this is Lya. What's the situation, Hailey?"

Jennifer Hailey looked up from where she sat, typing up something on the computer screen, "Sir, Wallace just called again about two minutes ago informing us that she's willing to accept a trade: Detective Eames for Colonel Carter."

"No," Bobby said adamantly, "We have Lya, we can get Sam out that way."

Lya shook her head softly, "It will not be that simple, Bobby. I must be able to see the object I am trying to hide before I can succeed in hiding it."

The group fell into another silence, all knowing there was only one way to solve the problem, and none of them liking the solution at all. After a terse moment, Alex finally looked at them all determined, "I'll go."

"NO," Bobby nearly shouted. He couldn't let her do that. What if Nicole killed her? What if something happened?

Lya's calming hand was placed on Bobby's forearm, "Do not fear for her safety, Bobby. All will be well."

"How can you promise that?" the detective asked, his voice agitated and low. Alex also turned her attention to the alien woman, wanting to know the answer and to have that reassurance even though she already had agreed to the plan.

"How deep is the river, if you cannot see the bottom?" Lya asked the two detectives, her voice still calm and musical. "Believe, and it will be."

At long last, Bobby nodded, accepting that what would happen … would happen. He didn't like sending Alex in there by herself any more than he liked being on the same ship as Nicole in the first place. But he'd let her do what she thought she must to save her friend.

* * *

Nicole smiled menacingly as the phone began to ring again. She turned to Sam, "Now, who do you think that is? General O'Neill and Bobby couldn't possibly be back from their little trip, yet. I wonder if Alex really is going to sacrifice herself for you?" 

Sam kept her face blank and said nothing as Nicole picked up the phone. She'd felt the ship decelerate from hyperspace about fifteen minutes before, and she knew that they were now in orbit of something – probably a planet with a Stargate. If that were the case … she just prayed to whatever real god was out there and listening that everything would turn out okay.

Nicole's smile only grew wider as she listened to what the other person on the phone was telling her. After a long stretch of silence she said, "Only Alex and Bobby are going to approach the door. I have a very good connection to the cameras in the hall – if anyone else but them approaches I'll blow up your dear Colonel Carter." She hung up and set about unblocking the door. It took only a few minutes for her to successfully get the door to open a few inches – just enough room for someone to slip a hand out.

When it was done, and the group in the security room called again to confirm Alex and Bobby were on their way down for the swap, Nicole pulled out her standard issue handgun and turned it on Sam. With a cool smile she said, "What a pity it isn't Jack pulling the trigger – again," and shot the prone woman once, through the heart.

The shot rang through the corridor as Bobby and Alex raced toward the room Nicole was holding Sam in, knowing that Lya would transport herself into the room as soon as they were close enough. At the sound of the shot, they sped up, praying that they weren't too late to save Sam's life.

When they approached the door, Alex took point, but unfortunately, neither one of them saw the gun until it was too late to dodge the bullet. It tore through Alex's body like a knife through butter – moments before Lya appeared and hid the gun, bomb and controls from the rest of the humans.

Moments more passed; security officers subdued Nicole – who was, at this point wondering how the hell the situation had gotten so out of hand, while being thrilled to no end that she had succeeded in killing her only rival for Bobby's affection.

What she wasn't expecting was that Bobby wasn't even looking at her in her moment of triumph – he was bent over the still form of his lithe partner, desperately trying to get her heart to start again, and to stem the staunch flow of blood that drained from her beautifully pale body.

As Nicole was led away, the men of the original SG-1 came arrived on the scene, Vala following close behind. They could hear Bobby muttering something that sounded like, "No, no, don't die. Don't be dead. You can't be dead. No. Not you, too. Don't leave me, Alex."

Jack averted his eyes, instead turning to the men working on getting the door open completely. Pendergast was the one who went in and found the lifeless body of Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter. His sorrowful face refused to meet Jack's worried eyes, telling the Major General all he needed to know.

In their sorrow, neither man noticed Lya – steady, faithful, beautiful Lya, as her hands slowly moved in the ancient rhythm of the Nox.

* * *

A/N: _dodges rotten fruit_ That's not nice! Hey - No, no don't throw fruit at me! It is a known fact for all SG-1 fans that the Nox are able to raise the dead. It is also a known fact to all of those that read my SG-1 stories that I don't kill off characters without a fool-proof way of bringing them back. 


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: HEY! I told you guys not to throw fruit!

* * *

One moment, Bobby was kneeling over Alex's still warm corpse in the middle of a space ship, the next he was kneeling on sun warmed grass, Alex's body cradled in his arms. A hand touched his shoulder and he looked up into Lya's child-like face, "Believe, and it shall be," she said in her musical voice, "Bring her if you wish her to live." 

Bobby's pain-ridden eyes looked at hers like a lost boy, "She's already dead."

"Her soul remains," Lya said, as if it was common knowledge, "Bring her if you wish the body to remain the vessel of her soul."

"Do it, Bobby," Jack said, his voice numb. He knew what was going on even as he cradled his dead wife to his body. Jack remembered all too well what had happened nine years before – the _first_ time they had met the Nox.

Wordlessly, Bobby stood with Alex's corpse cradled protectively in his arms. Lya made a motion of her hands over the Stargate and it sprung into life. The awe and wonder of the moment was lost on the detective, his mind trying to decide whether to shut down all together, or go along with what was happening. As they stepped back onto the Nox home world, and were confronted with five other Nox, Bobby's mind decided this was a little too interesting for it to go to sleep during it. Maybe afterward …

Lya bowed respectfully to the others. "Anteaus," she addressed one of the older Nox, "The Tauri women require the ceremony, immediately."

Anteaus nodded, his eyes traveling over the two dead woman. He addressed Jack as they walked toward the planet-side camp, "You're ways have done this to them. Do you now see that you're ways are not the best?"

Jack's emotionless eyes found Anteaus's, "Our ways are the only way I know."

Anteaus nodded and soon Bobby found himself having to relinquish his hold on Alex's body. He tried to resist, but Lya put a gentle hand on his arm, "You must let her go now, if you wish her to live." He nodded once, and laid Alex down where he was directed to.

He watched as two more Nox came out of the dwelling they were in front of, making eight of them total. Four of them stood behind the body of the New York City Detective, the other four behind the body of the United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel. Without a word to mark that everyone was on the same page, the Tauri watched as the ceremony began.

---

The first thing Alex was aware of was that someone was holding her much too tightly; the second thing was that something wet was dripping onto her shirt; the third thing was that the someone hugging her too tightly as they cried onto her shirt was Bobby. She moaned slightly as she stirred awake, Bobby loosened his hold on her a bit, allowing her room to get comfortable.

She opened her eyes and stared at her big teddy bear of a partner. Tears glistened in his eyes and slowly Alex remembered the gun Nicole had pointed at her, and she remembered getting shot. She should be dead. But through some miracle she wasn't. She was here in Bobby's arms, safe, loved.

Her hand came up to cup his cheek, her thumb brushing away the tears that continued to fall down his face. She smiled slightly, the smile she saved just for him, that told him everything was all right – that they were all right.

His head came down to meet hers, and they found a way to tell each other everything, without words. When they parted, the tears were still falling down Bobby's face. Alex sat up in his arms, letting him crush her body against his as he whispered, "Oh, God, I thought I lost you."

"You did, Bobby," Alex whispered back, her voice choking with unshed tears, "But I'm here now, Bobby. We're safe. We got her this time."

"Don't talk about her just yet," Bobby begged. "Just … let me hold you."

Alex was all too happy to oblige.

---

Sam gave Lya another big hug as Daniel dialed the Gate to Earth – Pendergast having already been informed to head back there after dropping off SG-1, Lya and the detectives. "Thank you, Lya."

Lya smiled at the other woman, "It was what I was meant to do, Sam." The Nox woman put her hand over Sam's stomach, a smile gracing her face, "Your sons will be great healers, Sam. One called to heal the mind, while the other heals the body."

"What?" Jack asked, in mock indignation, "You're telling us that my children are going to be a shrink and a doctor?"

Sam grinned at her husband as they stepped through the Gate, "Don't worry, Jack, I'm sure you can teach them to only use needles as a last resort."

Jack mock glared at his wife, "A shrink? Where would they get _that_ from?"

Sam cocked her head to one side as they hit the ramp on the Earth-side of the 'Gate, "I never told you that Mark is a psychiatrist?"

Jack glared at her menacingly, "No, you failed to mention that your brother's a psychiatrist, Carter."

She smiled impishly at him, "My mistake."

Jack's eyes widened, his mind not even registering the SF's and numerous 'Gate technicians that could hear his words, "Can I believe my own ears? My wife – the great and powerful Dr. Samantha Carter – admitting she made a mistake? Inconceivable!"

Bobby and Alex snorted at the glare Sam gave him in response. The doctor of theoretical astrophysics turned to look at the grinning faces of the SF's, before turning up to the control room to watch the techs frantically trying to figure out who won the betting pool. "Walter!" Sam bellowed.

The balding man who sat in the center of the control room computers turned on the microphone, "Yes, Colonel?"

"That money better be going to a charity," she called back. "Preferably one that helps kids, Walter."

"Yes, Colonel," the man replied. "It's a lofty amount, are you sure you don't want some of it, ma'am?"

"How much?" Jack asked, wondering how much the betting pools surrounding him and Sam had reached.

"That depends. Ma'am, are you pregnant?"

"Lya told us that it's twin boys," Sam said, her grin and happiness overriding her 'righteous indignation'.

Walter nodded, took his hand off the button that turned the microphone on and said something to a blond haired man in a jumpsuit. He nodded once and turned back around, "All the betting pools were won by General Hammond and Dr. Fraiser. The total amount that will go to the charity is about half a million dollars, ma'am, sir."

Sam glared at the grinning SF's as Jack yelled, "Doesn't _anyone_ work around here?"

* * *

A/N: Happy now? 


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: Apparently killing off characters and bringing them back to life is a great way to get reviews - they nearly doubled from the norm for this last chapter. Thank you.

* * *

Bobby wouldn't let go of Alex ever since she woke up. It calmed him much more than he could ever say to be able to hold her hand and feel the pulse beneath the skin that proved she was very much alive. His Alex. She'd died in his arms, and was reborn again – in his arms.

Alex would never admit it to most people, but she needed the constant contact with Bobby as much as he did. Nicole had come so close to taking away everything they had … but in the end she'd lost. Nicole was locked up by some of the best jailers in the galaxy – she'd tried to kill Colonel Carter. _No one_ tried to kill Colonel Carter and lived to tell the tale.

It didn't upset Alex in the slightest that Nicole was only in custody because of the loyalty these people had for each other. Nope, not one bit. Nicole deserved _everything_ that was coming to her.

After the rather … humorous display in the 'Gate room, a man in the uniform of a Major General practically ran into the room, stopping only when he was inches away from Jack. "What the hell happened?"

Jack balked a little at the man's attitude before saying, "Nice to see you, too, Hank. How's it going? Been out of the mountain lately?"

Major General Hank Landry sighed, "Hi, Jack. How's it been? Things have been pretty hectic around here with Dr. Jackson gone. Oh, by the way, thanks _so_ much for the warning you gave me before hijacking my top archeologist and the SGC liaison with the Free Jaffa Nation. They're _really_ great to deal with when they're mad, aren't they?"

Jack grimaced, "Oy. T, it looks like you've gotta go mend some fences with the other Council members."

Teal'c bowed gracefully to Jack and the rest of the group, "Indeed, O'Neill. I shall return to Dakara as soon as I have changed into the appropriate attire."

Jack motioned for Hank to take control of the situation, "Briefing room?" Hank nodded.

Soon Alex and Bobby found themselves seated around a large oval table. Jack started to debrief Hank, "We have a prisoner that's going to beamed down into one of the holding cells as soon as the _Prometheus_ hits orbit. She's a dangerous murderer and should be treated with the same precaution used for the Goa'uld."

Hank raised his eyebrows, "That bad?"

Sam cleared her throat, "Sir, you read all the mission reports, right?" At his nod she continued, "She has a … need for power that rivals that of the Goa'uld, no conscious whatsoever, and an amazingly uncanny resemblance to Ba'al."

Jack cocked his head at his wife, "I can't see it."

"Her _mind_, sir, not her looks," Sam explained patiently – as if she had gone through the same scenario many times.

"You're going to be posting guards in the room?" Bobby asked suddenly.

"Of course," Hank said.

"I'd recommend only posting them on the outside of the room – or only posting people who are under strict orders not to say a word to her," Bobby explained, "She has an amazing ability to … twist anything to gain sympathy from almost anyone."

"Don't worry," Hank said, "All our people at the SGC are very well trained – and we're going to be stationing two SG teams to guard her. If she tries mind games with them, they'll just agitate her."

"Who are you posting?" Jack asked, now just as curious as the others.

"SG-2 and SG-5," Hank responded.

Jack snorted, causing Sam and Daniel to start laughing as well. "What?" Alex asked.

"SG-5 is Marines, and SG-2 is the secondary first-contact team – Air Force. Now, how long do you think she could hold up with the bantering of eight career military men – most of which are chauvinistic pig heads?" Jack explained.

Alex smirked as Bobby thought about it. "Wow," she said, "Can we get a video of that?"

Bobby cast a look at her, telling her that he was very upset about her asking the question in the first place. What the hell was she thinking?

"Jack?" Hank asked, "What are we going to do with her?"

"That's up to them, Hank," Jack said, motioning with his head toward Bobby and Alex. Everyone looked at them, wondering what they would say.

Alex squeezed Bobby's hand, telling him that it was his choice and she'd back him up. After a few moments of silence he asked, "I want her to suffer punishment for everything she's done. And I want it in the public record on Earth."

Jack nodded, "Okay. We can do that."

Bobby's fervent eyes met his, "And I want to be the one who interrogates her."

At that, the general frowned, "Are you sure about that? I mean – we've got pretty effective methods as it is. You don't have to."

"I want to," Bobby said. "I want to be the one who makes her break after such a long and brutal chase."

Jack nodded, "A revenge thing, I got it. Okay."

"Wait a minute," Alex shot in, "Just like that? You're going to let him at her with that much of an argument?"

Jack looked at her with a blank expression, "Why not?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. It just seems … too easy."

Daniel looked down at his hands before explaining to the detectives, "If Bobby wants to be the one – it's up to him. We've faced enough maniacs out there to recognize the value and closure that can come with seeing the downfall of your enemy … and being the one who causes them to fall."

Alex filed that information away in her mind, to potentially ask Sam about later. She squeezed Bobby's hand again, letting him know that she'd do what she could to help him through what he had just asked to happen.

"While you're waiting for the prisoner to arrive," Hank said, getting up, "You all might want to take a trip down to the infirmary and make sure the Nox got everything when they healed Colonel Carter and Detective Eames – and for your physicals." Jack started to protest but Hank held up a hand, "You know the drill, sir. It's SOP, and _you_ just got back from a trip off-world."

Jack glared at the other man before turning to Teal'c and asking, "So … this, Dr. Lam anything like Fraiser when it comes to needles?"

"Indeed."

* * *

A/N: I really hoped you liked this chapter. In two chapters (the one after this next one) there is going to be the Bobby/Nicole interrogation scene - the whole chapter. If you all review, I'll post it faster. I would like a duplicate number of this last chapters reviews, please. 


	24. Chapter 24

A/N: A very bad transition chapter. Well, it's all starting to wind down, now. Enjoy!

* * *

"When will the _Prometheus_ get into orbit?" Bobby asked as he had his butt shot with a scary looking needle wielded by a stern looking female doctor by the name of Dr. Carolyn Lam. 

"In about another hour," Sam responded. "If you want, we can give you the ten-cent tour while we're waiting."

"_Or_," Jack put in, playing with something he knew he shouldn't be playing with while he waited for the others to finish up with their physicals, "We could go wait in the commissary. I haven't had pie like they make here in ages."

Sam rolled her eyes, "Of course, the _one_ thing the cooks make from scratch: the pumpkin pie." She furrowed her brow as she thought about pie, "Actually, Jack, that sounds quite good right now."

Jack grinned, causing Alex and Bobby to smile at the obvious love the couple had for each other. "Well, then, the pregnant woman has spoken. Pie it shall be."

Alex turned her attention back to her big partner, "Why didn't you ever do that for me when I was pregnant?" she asked as he walked out from behind the curtain that separated the area Dr. Lam was giving the physicals in from the rest of the room.

Bobby looked at her with his trademark wide, innocent eyes, "I thought I did."

Alex shook her head, "Nope, not before Bishop got there – and I'm pretty sure you only did that because you wanted to distance yourself from her from the start. Which, by the way, didn't work so well with her."

Bobby shrugged, "I'll make a note of that for next time."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, the sole movement in the room after Bobby's half-thought through statement. The silence was palpable as the members of the SGC waited to see what Alex would say to that.

"Next time?" she finally asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "You're pretty full of yourself, Goren. What makes you so sure there'll _be_ a next time?"

Bobby gave her the puppy-dog look that had worked so well for him so many times in the past. He really didn't want to fight with her. In an attempt to add a little humor to the situation he said, "What? You're saying that Cindy and Ken aren't going to want any more children?"

Try as she might, Alex couldn't help but feel the bad mood drain out of her body and a smile grace her face. She couldn't help it – less than two hours after being killed then brought back to life and she was flirting with Bobby in front of a room full of people – and they're _not_ under cover. Who would have thought that death could be such a good matchmaker? Certainly not Alex.

Daniel cleared his throat, "So … pie?"

"Excellent idea, Dr. Jackson," Sam said, threading her arm through his in a friendly manner. "Lead the way!"

As the two made their way out of the infirmary, Jack couldn't help but smirk as he followed them. Daniel was very lucky that Jack knew without a doubt that the two weren't sleeping together – and that Sam and Daniel were like siblings. Otherwise Bobby and Alex were positive that Daniel would have been maimed for his friendly relationship with Sam.

---

The time went by quickly as the group ate pie and other desserts while waiting for Nicole to be beamed down into one of the interrogation rooms. Pendergast would send a message to the SGC as soon as they reached orbit; he'd then be given the precise location to beam Nicole Wallace into.

Bobby tried to focus on Alex and the piece of delectable chocolate cake in front of him, but his mind kept on wandering back to Nicole. He wanted to make her suffer _so_ damn much for hurting Alex, it made his blood boil. She'd tried to take away his Alex! Who the hell did she think she was? She wasn't God – and it was _way_ past time that she got that through her thick skull.

By the time an Airman came and whispered something in Jack's ear, Bobby was almost ready to burst in his desire to rip Nicole apart with his bare hands. Jack turned to Bobby, "Let's take a walk." Jack turned to Sam and Daniel and said, "Observation room five."

Bobby rose to follow Jack, Alex's eyes following them as they walk out of the commissary and out of sight. She knew that it was now time for the final battle between Bobby Goren and Nicole Wallace. That battle that would decide forever who was known as the victor and who would be known as the one that broke.

Jack led Bobby through the corridors of the SGC, nodding in recognition to each of the passing officers and civilians that called out salutations to the Major General. All Bobby could think about was getting Nicole. She'd tried to kill Alex – hell, she _had_ killed Alex! The feeling of Alex's warm hand on his cheek came back to him. _"We're safe. We got her this time."_ Her words to him as he held her in his arms, came back to the front of his mind. Oh, yeah, they had her this time. And _this_ time, there was no way in hell he was going to let her get away.

When they reached the elevator, Jack swiped his pass-card through and pressed the down button. They were securely inside when he started to speak, "There are a few things you need to know before you go in there, Bobby."

The younger man's eyes flickered to look at him before turning back to watch the numbers grow larger as they descended into the mountain. "One: in this mountain – she has no rights. Two: if you find at any time that you want out of that room, all you have to do is stand by the door and knock – they'll let you out. Three: nearly everyone in this mountain wants to kill her and see her dead just as much as you do. We take care of our own. Four: we'll back up whatever you decide to do."

The elevator stopped at the doors opened, revealing a group of four men, armed to the teeth, waiting for them there. "SG-2, meet Detective Bobby Goren. Goren, meet SG-2: Major Ferretti; Colonel Denison; Lt. Ashford; and Lt. Henderson. They're going to be guarding inside the room. SG-5 in place?"

"Yes, sir," Denison said. "The prisoner is in place and …" he trailed off, unsure what would be appropriate to say in the moment.

Ferretti had no such qualms. With a cool smile that would frighten anyone else, he calmly said, "By the time she leaves this mountain, she'll be wishing she with Ra and Sokar, sir."

Jack nodded once, "She'll see them soon enough." With another nod to Bobby, he let SG-2 lead the detective away. Jack wanted to give the big detective as much time as he wanted with the she-devil. After all, if she was going to end up in the lowest circle of hell, full of dead false-gods, the least he could do was let Bobby get the revenge he so desperately needed first.

* * *

A/N: Next up: Bobby and Nicole. Who will win? Who will win? Ah, hell, we all KNOW who's gonna win! But how they get there is half the fun!  



	25. Chapter 25

A/N: Here it is! The Bobby/Nicole interrogation! I_ really _hope you guys like it.

* * *

Bobby walked into the room that held his arch-nemesis, behind the four members of SG-2. It wasn't that he needed them in there – but he was taking _no_ chances with this interrogation. Nicole was going _down_, and the more witnesses the better.

She was sitting calmly at the table placed in the middle of the room. Other than the size difference and the eight heavily armed men standing guard both inside and outside the room, Bobby could have sworn that the NYPD and the Air Force had the same decorator. … Probably the same budget, too.

"I was wondering when you'd be up," Nicole said, her accent heavy as she gazed adoringly at Bobby. There was blood on his clothes, and she noted he still seemed visibly haunted, and charmingly disheveled. Nicole assumed she was seeing grief in his eyes, and, with satisfaction, she decided that Alex must be really and truly dead, along with the foolish Colonel Carter. Smiling in her condescendingly sweet nature she greeted Bobby, "Or is it down? I never can tell in this mountain."

Bobby just raised his eyebrows at her seemingly carefree demeanor. She still thought she'd won. "Cut the crap, Nicole," he said harshly. "You've lost."

Her smile was cold and pure evil, "Oh, no, Bobby. I won. Killing her was the single most satisfying moment of my life. Memories of that will keep me warm in my prison cell. Everyone leaves poor little Bobby. No one ever stays long. Not even Mummy."

Anger flashed in his eyes as he desperately tried to remain in control of his emotions. The members of SG-2 watched the scene with seeming impassiveness. Ferretti had been in Germany with Jack and Bobby – he remembered the kind profiler, and it made him sick to think that someone like this psychotic bitch could do this to him.

Without warning to any of them, Bobby started to laugh. It was a cold, impassionate laugh that sent chills of fear down Nicole's spine. To the members of SG-2, it sounded very similar to one of the Goa'uld System Lords back when they were still a viable power in the galaxy. "You really think you've won? You really think that you can use my own insecurities against me, Nicole? How old _were_ you when your father started molesting you? Was it five?"

Her silence was enough answer for him as he loomed over the table; his tall, thick frame making him even more imposing as he did what he had yearned to do for so many years. "It's not going to work this time, Nicole," his voice hard, low and with a hint of a predator stalking his prey. Bobby's eyes flickered up to the observation room, and saw Sam enter with Alex.

The change in his gaze drew Nicole's eyes there as well. Her heart nearly stopped as she realized that the one thing she wanted to do: recreate Bobby in her own image, was lost to her with _that_ _woman_ standing alive and well.

Bobby walked over to the other side of the table and knelt at Nicole's side, his mouth level with her ear as he whispered, "She's everything you're not – and you will _never_ take her away from me."

Nicole's eyes, worried and broken, turned to look at Bobby, "I want to go to my cell."

At that the big detective smiled, menacingly, "What makes you think you have that right? You lost _all_ your rights when you pretended to be an Air Force officer, got yourself assigned to a top secret military project and _killed_ two women."

Nicole's eyes flickered back up the observation room before turning back to Bobby, "They seem very much alive to me."

It was all Bobby could do to refrain from slapping the smug look off her face.

Instead he started pacing in front of the wall between Ferretti and Denison. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke again, "You have two choices, Nicole. One: you confess to _everything_ you've ever done – including your daughter's murder. You will, of course, get a needle in your arm. Two: you _don't_ confess and it goes down on the record anyway that you confessed, but instead of getting a needle you get whatever General O'Neill and the rest of the SGC decide to do to you."

Since her idea to have him eating out of her hand through grief over Eames wasn't working, Nicole took another route – compassion. "Could you really do that to me, Bobby? Would you really let them hand me over to the Free Jaffa Nation to be tortured to death?"

Bobby turned to look up at Alex, gaining strength from her gaze as she silently watched the scene. Quietly, without turning away from his rock and foundation, he said, "After all the people whose lives _you've_ manipulated, and all the people you've tortured mentally and physically … you expect _mercy_? Either confess and get a needle, or don't and face the death they give you."

Her composure fell, and she had to turn away from the looming detective. She turned toward the table, trying her hardest not to break down in tears. Try as she might, she couldn't play the game anymore. How was that possible?

She and Bobby had been playing cat and mouse for the past three years … how could she not be able to play anymore? He _wasn't_ supposed to win in the end! "I want to see my lawyer," she said, falling back on her rights as an American citizen.

Bobby laughed again, turning to her with real humor in his eyes, "That's funny, Nicole. I'll bet you've been waiting hours just to say that. _You don't have that right anymore_. Not here, not now. Never again."

The detective didn't even wait for an answer: he'd already won, and now he had to go finish something he'd started four years before when he'd figured out that he was in love with his five foot four inch tall partner. The blast door opened as he reached it, and he walked out calmly, never even looking back at the woman who had tormented him for so long. The game was _done_ – and she lost.

* * *

A/N: So? What do you guys think? Any good? Don't worry, BA fluff galore coming up. ... and maybe a presidential pardon. 


	26. Chapter 26

A/N: I'm updating really quickly because so many of you reviewed really quickly for the last chapter. The title for this story's going to make more sense after reading this chapter.

* * *

"Are you okay, Bobby?" Alex asked as she walked into the VIP rooms Landry had set up for them. 

The detective nodded, his eyes flickering up to meet hers. "Yeah, I think I am." He motioned for her to come closer to where he was sitting on the bed and she obliged willingly. Bobby gathered her up in his arms, resting his head on her stomach as he breathed in her scent. "We got her, Eames. We got her good."

Alex smiled as she remembered the incident a year and a half before, when Nicole had set up a murder, then killed the main suspect, staging it to look like a suicide. Back then she had been going by the name Elizabeth Hayes. Alex stroked Bobby's graying curly hair lovingly. "Yeah, we did," she whispered back.

He brought his head up, so his chin was resting on her stomach, and he could look his petite partner in the eyes. "Don't leave me, Alex."

Her smile was warm and loving as she said, "Never again."

His eyes held a look of a child's trusting nature – he wanted to believe her, but he'd been burned so many times before by almost everyone he'd ever loved. "Promise me?"

Alex's head dipped down to kiss him sweetly. When they pulled apart she whispered, "I promise, Bobby."

There was a knock at the door, causing the two detectives to pull apart quickly as it opened and Daniel walked in. Alex frowned, "Where's Vala?"

The space pirate's head popped into the room, "Hello. Bobby, if you ever decide to leave the life you have of enforcing this planet's laws, you'd make a _great_ pirate."

Bobby blushed as Daniel glared at the woman, "That's not why we're here, actually. I just wanted to let you guys know that Nicole took the deal. She'll be transported back to New York City where she'll be incarcerated at a maximum security prison until her death sentence is carried out."

Alex looked at Bobby closely, to gage his reaction to the news. She was a little surprised to see that he wasn't upset, but relieved. The detective then turned back to the linguist and asked, "When do we leave?"

"Actually, the Air Force is taking care of her transportation," Daniel explained. "She won't be given _any_ chance to escape. Jack got you guys tickets on a flight leaving tomorrow morning for JFK."

"Sam wants to go out to celebrate our latest victory," Vala chimed in. "And Jack said he's paying."

Bobby silently chuckled at the woman's exuberance before he nodded, "Let's go, then."

He rose to leave, one of his hands opening and seeking out Alex's. No words were needed between the two as they walked with Daniel and Vala toward the elevator that would take them to the surface of Cheyenne Mountain deep within Colorado Springs. There would be enough time later to process the kisses they had shared that day – and to feel guilty about them – right now all he wanted to do was just be with Alex and stop thinking about tomorrow. So he did.

---

The group of six laughed as they sat around Daniel's living room, talking about different things – exchanging stories, discussing plans for Sam and Jack's larger wedding ceremony set to take place some months in the future, just talking.

Daniel and Bobby had gone off on some obscure conversation thread about Jews and Russia (don't ask how they got there; Daniel was drunk) when Vala scrunched her brow and asked, "Do your people have any documentation from that time? Sounds awful."

"No, Vala, this was long before Russia allowed things like this to be documented," Bobby explained.

"That's not true," Sam and Alex said at the same time. They looked at each other and snorted. Sam continued with a smile, "There's one movie that comes to mind. Bobby, did you know that Alex had a crush on Topol when we were in high school?"

Alex glared at her old friend, "Better than your crush on Charlton Heston."

Sam furrowed her brow, "How so?"

"Mine can sing."

"Oh, yes, he _can_ sing. But mine played Moses _and_ John the Baptist. Not to mention he was in _Planet of the Apes_, and stared in _Ben-Hur_. All your guy's know for is _The Fiddler on the Roof_."

Alex mock glared at her, "Topol _created_ the role of Tevyer. Not to mention watching him dance around the set when he sings 'If I Was a Rich Man' …" she sighed dreamily before poking Bobby in his side, "You should learn how to sing that song."

Bobby's look of wide-eyed terror caused everyone else to laugh. "I – I don't sing, Eames. You know that."

"Can we watch it?" Vala asked.

"Watch what?" Daniel slurred.

"Watch this movie … _Fiddler on the Roof_. Please?"

"Sure," Sam said.

"I'm game," Jack said. "I haven't seen that movie in … wow, ever since Teal'c asked about what life was like in Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution."

Sam got up from where she was ensconced within Daniel's loveseat with Jack, and put on the DVD Vala had requested. Soon some of them were humming/singing along with Tevyer as he loudly sang 'Tradition'.

As the cast of the movie was singing 'Sunrise, Sunset', Sam turned to her husband and poked him gently, getting his attention. She motioned with her head toward Bobby and Alex and when he turned he found Alex sleeping peacefully, half on top of Bobby's lap, an afghan from some distant planet keeping her warm. Bobby was gazing down at her, completely unaware that he was being watched. His hand lightly caressed Alex's side, causing her to shift closer to his warm embrace.

Jack bend his head down toward his wife's ear and whispered, "Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match. Who's they're matchmaker, Carter?"

Sam turned back to her husband, a contented smile on her face as she whispered, "The same one we had. And I'm pretty sure it's the same on Adam and Eve had, too."

* * *

A/N: I really like Topol and Charlton Heston. Can you tell? _The Fiddler on the Roof _is one of my favorite movies. ... All except the pogrom. 


	27. Chapter 27

A/N: Almost done. Thanks for the reviews.

* * *

When Bobby and Alex got back to New York, all the proper channels had been notified about Nicole Wallace (the abridged version of her exploits) and Deakins was waiting for them with a grin on his face. He just shook his head at their easy demeanor after getting the woman who'd been a thorn in their sides for years. 

"I don't know how you two did it," Deakins said, passing Bobby a bag from a nearby bakery, "But you got her. Great work. A signed confession and everything. Not to mention the Air Force backing up the charges and sentencing to make them stick."

Bobby took the bag and smiled softly when he saw what was inside – two blueberry muffins. He handed the bag to Alex who scoffed and asked, "What, no scones? We bring you back Nicole Wallace with a signed confession to everything she's ever done … and we don't even merit a _scone_?"

Deakins just rolled his eyes, "Get back to work, you two. Nicole Wallace isn't the only psychopath in New York."

As Deakins walked away Alex grinned at her partner, "Just the only one it took us three years to pin a conviction to."

---

Weeks turned into months as Bobby and Alex got back into the swing of chasing and catching criminal masterminds in New York. Once a week Sam called Alex and they discussed their lives (leaving out the classified bits): Sam's growing stomach, and Alex's budding relationship with her partner and friend.

Bobby and Alex had begun sleeping in the same bed a few days after they got back to New York from Colorado. Not too soon after that, Alex had effectively moved into Bobby's apartment. Deakins didn't know the difference between a chocolate muffin and a Napoleon.

Four months after the kidnapping of Scott Douglas and Cassie Fraiser, Bobby and Alex walked into the office together, laughing and drinking coffee. They were rather surprised to see two people in Deakins' office, and a rather large package sitting on Alex's desk.

Furrowing her brow, Alex moved toward the package (more of a basket, really), "Who in the world would be sending me a gift basket?"

"Is there a card?" Bobby asked, walking up behind her.

Alex found it, addressed to her, and opened the card written in an unfamiliar scrawl. She scrunched her brow in confusion at the note, passing it to Bobby for him to read. Her eyes flickered back to Deakins office, only to find that she recognized the woman and man standing with the Captain, inside.

As the woman and man walked out into the bullpen, Bobby looked at Alex with a confused look on his face, "Eames, whose Henry?"

"I told him to sign it President Hayes!" the man complained to his wife as they walked up to the pair.

The woman shook her head, patting her husband's arm gently, "Jack, he wanted it to be informal. You think 'President Hayes' the first thing that comes to mind is the war in Iraq – not the SGC. Hi, Alex, Bobby."

"Hi, Sam, Jack" Alex said, giving her very pregnant friend a hug. She felt two kicks come from Sam's stomach as she pulled away, "Wow, those two are busy."

Sam sighed, "They never stop. Not even when it's four in the morning and I have to be up at six. I seriously think they take turns playing 'Let's annoy Mommy and make sure she doesn't get any sleep'."

Alex laughed at that as Jack said, "Well, at least you don't need that much sleep to begin with, Carter. Remember all those all-nighters you used to pull?"

Sam's amused face turned to her husbands, "You mean the ones I would pull trying to fix a problem you, Daniel or SG-3 got us into? Or do you mean the ones I pulled trying to save Earth from utter destruction while trying to calm down enough not to kill McKay for calling me a dumb blonde?"

Jack smirked, "Want me to sent Shepard a message to spike McKay's food with lemon?"

"As tempting as that sounds, honey, Rodney McKay _is_ a brilliant scientist and he's the best out there," Sam said, a wistful look in her eye.

Bobby cleared his throat, waving the card in front of them he asked, "This is from the President of the United States?"

Jack looked at him with wide eyes, "Yep. I think he put two plane tickets in there, too. The missus really wants to meet you guys after they found out what happened."

"Dinner at the White House?" Alex asked, scrunching her nose.

"_Private_ dinner at the White House," Jack elaborated. He noticed the detectives eye the basket on Alex's desk with wary uncertainty. Finally, he could take it no more and asked, "What? You don't like fruit baskets?"

"Is that what this is?" Alex asked, her eyes wide in mock innocence. "Here I thought it was a new engine for my car."

"Actually, that's being delivered to your house tomorrow," Sam's eyes were as wide as her smile as she sheepishly shuffled her feet.

Alex snorted as she shook her head, "Only you, Sam."

"Why are you guys here?" Bobby asked.

"Oh, that," Jack said, pulling out a letter from his coat pocket. "We're the delivery boy and girl." He handed it to Bobby.

The big detective opened it and started reading the letter inside:

_To whom it may concern:_

_I, President Henry Hayes, hereby authorize a special dispensation for Detectives Robert Goren and Alexandra Eames in regards to the non-fraternization policy upheld by the NYPD. This dispensation is under the conditions that any relationship hereby taken up and pursued by the two detectives in question does not in any way effect their solve and conviction rate of crimes in New York. (That means no making out in the break room.) Their superior officer will be responsible for overseeing that this rule is carried out._

_If they are willing to accept this dispensation, effective immediately, all that is left to say is one thing: Don't screw it up._

_Sincerely,_

_Henry Hayes, President of the United States of America_

* * *

A/N: There's this long running thing in the SG-1 realm that the only way Sam and Jack can get together is if the president gives them permission. ... I thought I'd share the love (and the joke). 


	28. Chapter 28

A/N: I can't believe this took me so long to finish!

* * *

Alex couldn't speak. She literally couldn't make her mouth and brain work in tandem. And neither could Bobby. 

Sam looked at her husband, a satisfied smile on her face. She bumps his hip with hers as she said, "I _told_ you they'd like it better than the fruit basket."

"Speaking of which," Jack said, feeling his phone start to vibrate. He opened it and saw it was from his clone, "Hey, MJ. Like the gifts?"

The clone chuckled into the receiver, "Much better than a fruit basket, Yenta. She didn't have to …"

"She _wanted_ to," Jack said adamantly. "Minnie Mouse doesn't have any of the memories after the time you were … born. Carter said it would be better that way. Did you get the other thing?"

Scott smiled as he looked over to where a young clone of Samantha Carter was lying down on his sofa, a soft smile playing on her lips as she watched him talk on the phone to The Originals. "Yeah, we got the other thing. Tell Carter I said thanks." He hung up the phone. Oh, yes, _much_ better than a fruit basket.

Sam smiled warmly at her husband as he hung up the phone, "Did he like Minnie?"

Jack nodded, "He said it was even better than a fruit basket."

"That's because Scott's just like you, Jack – you two _hate_ fruit." _Unless you're eating it off me in bed_, she added silently.

"What'd you two send Scott?" Alex asked, finally getting over the shock of the letter Bobby still held in his hands.

Sam pointed to herself, "Minnie Mouse. Her new name's Dorothy Gazer. Dorothy Star Gazer." Bobby looked up curiously at that while Sam grinned at her husband and their friends, "What? We thought it was funny."

At their incredulous looks Sam rolled her eyes, "Oh, come on, it's not like her last name's going to be _Gazer_ for very long! The other thing Jack was talking about was his grandmother's engagement ring."

Bobby smiled softly as Alex said, "Whose ring are you wearing, Sam?"

Sam grinned, showing the rock to Alex, "_My_ grandmother's engagement ring. Apparently my dad gave it to Jack right before he died."

"_Oh_," Sam's eyes suddenly grew wide in shock. She rubbed her tummy with one hand as she glared at her stomach, "Ow. That _wasn't_ very nice, boys. Stop hurting Mommy."

Jack looked at his wife worriedly, "Are you okay, Carter?"

Sam closed her eyes, trying to control the pain, "I'll be fine, Jack. The boys are just fighting and they're running into a lot of my organs."

"Did you decide on names?" Alex asked, ushering Sam to sit down in her chair.

Sam grinned at that, "Yep. Robert Shane O'Neill and Carter Jacob O'Neill."

The big detective's eyes were wide, "Y-you don't have to do that."

Jack slapped his back in a very manly way, "Don't worry, Bobby, we expect one named after me by the end of next year."

Sam's smiling face turned to Alex, who had one hand over her stomach as she looked at the two men bantering. "Alex?" she whispered. Alex looked at her then turned back to Bobby, not really wanting to say what she had to say, right then.

"Come on, Goren," she said, "Let's take a walk."

Bobby nodded, having more than enough to think about with the fruit/gift basket on Alex's desk meant. His hand shot out, seeking Alex's as they walked out of the bullpen. He had no idea that in a few minutes he'd have even more to think about.

Deakins walked over to the two Air Force officers, shaking his head slightly, "I can't believe I didn't see it before."

Sam shrugged, "When you can't be with someone you love, you learn to hide it. Just be glad the President still owes us a few favors … and he's heard about Major Case's 'Dream Team'."

Deakins furrowed his brow, "That letter's real, right? I have full authority over making sure their relationship doesn't affect their work?"

Jack nodded, "Yep. If you see their work slipping … you have the responsibility of making sure that doesn't happen."

Deakins nodded. He was about to say something else when Sam's hand shot out and grabbed Jack's arm in a death grip. "What is it?" Jack asked his wife, worry etched in his face and his voice.

Sam's face was scrunched in pain as she said, "I think it's time, Jack."

"Time? Now? It can't be time, you're not even seven months along!" Jack said.

Sam shot a glare at her husband, "It seems the boys don't like doing what they're told. Remind you of anyone?"

"Yeah, you and Daniel," Jack shot back, ushering his wife to the elevator.

"Just shut up and get me to a damn hospital, _sir_," Sam snapped, leaning half her weight on her husband as she walked to the elevator.

Deakins watched them leave, squabbling like they'd been married for twenty years. He chuckled as he realized that Goren and Eames acted that way, too. Maybe it just took one couple that'd been denied their true love for far too long to recognize another.

With a sudden urge to call his wife and tell her how much he loved her, Deakins walked back to his office, a tune floating through his head:

_Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match; find me a find; catch me a catch. Matchmaker, Matchmaker, look through your book and make me a perfect match…_

Fin

* * *

A/N: If I was too subtle for you, Alex is pregnant. Anywho, I got the idea for this story after watching_ Fiddler on the Roof _- that's why Deakins is thinking about it in the end. I just love that movie - and that song. The epilogue should be up soon.  



	29. Epilogue

A/N: Thanks for all the support and reviews for this story. The epilogue is set right after 'The War at Home'.

---

Alex watched her husband storm out of the squad room. She didn't know what to do – she knew where he was going and had no problem with that … but this really wasn't like him. Why wasn't he talking to her?

Their marriage had been fine up until his mother had been diagnosed with cancer. Then their baby, Jonathan Robert Goren (who was almost two), had gotten bronchitis and most of Alex and Bobby's energy had gone into taking care of the baby (JR) and poor Francis. After a few months Sam had finally been able to get time enough to go up to New York with a Goa'uld healing device so she could help with JR's ever-worsening bronchitis – but there was nothing they could do for Francis.

Captain Ross watched the big detective walk away before turning to Goren's diminutive partner, Alex Eames, and asked, "Will he be back?"

Alex shook her head, fighting down the urge to glare at the captain. It was, after all, _his_ phone call that had led to Bobby and her being called in. "Not today. Probably not tomorrow either."

"What about Monday?" Ross asked.

"Depends. Look," Alex turned to her boss, "It's going to take a while – Bobby's really stressed out right now. Give him time. And let me do the rest of this paperwork." Without another word she stalked off to her desk and started on all the paperwork that needed done.

She was almost done with all the paperwork when the phone on her desk rang. "Eames," she answered.

"Hi," Bobby said softly.

"Hey, sweetie," Alex responded, "You okay now?"

"No. I-I'm better, though. I picked up JR from your dad's and we're back at the house now. I – I'm sorry I took it out on you, Alex."

"I'm sorry, too, Bobby," Alex said, her eyes moist with unshed tears.

"What for?" he asked, watching his son play with the toy Sam and Jack had sent for his birthday. It looked like a regular bouncing ball, but (as it was from off-world) it would glow different colors and responded to commands (if you wanted to bounce the ball, you told it "Bounce" and it would keep on bouncing).

"For snapping at you. Listen, Bobby, I'm almost done with this paperwork. I'll pick up some Chinese on the way home and we can talk then, okay?"

Bobby was confused, but he was too damn tired of everything to really care. "See you then, Alex. I love you."

"Love you, too. Bye." Alex hung up the phone and wiped her eyes, not wanting anyone to see her tears. With a deep, calming breath, she got back to her paperwork and half an hour later she was done.

"You okay, Eames?" Ross asked as he noticed her distraught look.

"I'm _fine_, Captain," she snapped. "I'm just tired – I'd expected to be able to spend the day with my husband and my son – getting called into work wasn't the plan."

"I thought you said your husband was dead," Ross said, now rather confused.

"My first husband, Joe, _is_ dead. But my _second_ husband is very much alive."

"Anyone I know?" Ross asked, trying to remember if he saw her marital status on her personnel file.

"Yes," Alex said, grabbing her purse and coat from the stand, "You know him quite well, but you don't get along with him."

"Don't tell me you're married to Logan?" Ross asked, as the other detective was the only one besides Goren he didn't get along with.

Alex's face bore a scowl as she tried not to smile at the thought of her and Mike married. "No, I'm _not_ married to Logan."

"That just leaves Goren, Eames, and you're not allowed to be married to him," Ross said, confusion still evident on his face.

Alex pressed the down button on the elevator and turned around to Ross as she waited, "Tell that to the minister who preformed the ceremony, _our_ son, Bobby's _mother_, and the damn _President of the United States_!"

The elevator dinged open and out walked Jack O'Neill, "Whoa, Alex," he said as he put his hands on top of her shoulders, "Stop scaring your boss and go talk to Bobby."

Alex furrowed her brow, "What are you doing here?" She looked him over and realized he was in uniform, "In uniform no less."

Jack smirked and cocked his head toward Ross, "It took a while for me to find some time where I could come and talk to him. How's JR?"

At the mention of her son Alex relaxed, "He's better, thanks. Tell Sam I said thanks, too. I really don't know what we would have done if …"

Jack nodded, "Go see Bobby. Sam was going to take the kids to the park to give him some time to think. Just … don't do anything rash."

Alex smiled slightly at her husband's friend, "Okay. Have fun explaining it to Ross."

She got on the elevator and headed down to the ground floor as Jack took Ross under his arm and asked, "Okay, Captain Ross, first things first: Is there any pie in this building?"

---

Alex opened the door of her split-level townhouse and called out, "Hello? Bobby?"

"In here," he called from their bedroom.

When Alex walked in, she found her husband of nearly two years sitting on the bed, tears very evident in his eyes. She moved toward her husband, her heart breaking as she realized there were tear marks on his face. "What happened?" she asked as she sat down on the bed next to him.

"Sh-she died," Bobby whispered, his voice horse as he verbalized his pain. "I l-left an-and she died."

Alex gathered her husband into her arms, resting his head over her heart as she laid the two of them down on the bed. Bobby turned on his side and clung to her fervently, his tears soaking the shirt she was wearing, along with their pillows and comforter.

When he was finally under control of his emotions Alex asked, "You're brother?"

Bobby shook his head, "Hasn't even called with a reason why he's not here. I'm sorry, Alex." One of his hands came out to stroke her face gently, "So sorry I've been shutting you out since Mom got sick."

Alex smiled softly, "Just don't do it again, okay? I love you, Bobby. It took me dying and us putting Nicole Wallace where she belongs to get us together and stop acting like idiots – even President Hayes gave a shot at playing Matchmaker." At his smile she kissed him before saying, "It's going to take a lot more than something like this to tear us apart. Tell me you believe me."

"I do. God, I love you, Alex."

She smiled, kissing him again, "Just do me a favor, okay?"

"What?"

"Don't get into anymore pissing matches with the Commissioner?"

Bobby chuckled, feeling a ray of light break through the dark depression that had begun to claim his heart again. "I promise," he whispered before kissing his wife again – with hints and wishes of things to come.

Fin

* * *

A/N: I know the ending is a little contrived, but it's the way it was written. I've been wanting to do a post-ep for 'The War at Home' and this seemed like the best way to do it. 


End file.
